Valence
by Cowjump
Summary: With the end of their first year at Beacon Academy having come to pass, Team RWBY must contend with the next three months of their summer break. Follow this eclectic bunch as they are thrown into a situation that utilizes neither their combined combat prowess nor their acquired knowledge on all things battle-related during their adventures in the city of Vale.
1. Chapter 1: Stargazing

Thank you for clicking on this story and at least giving me the opportunity to entertain. As this is the first chapter of my novel-to-be, I will keep this chapter's author's note at a minimum, letting the story speak for itself. There is an extended author's note on my profile that includes an expanded explanation for the story, what I plan to do with the story, a disclaimer, and other supplementary information. I would suggest at least reading my plans for this story, as it includes when I plan on posting and any extraneous information that should ease the mind of an expectant reader.

With all of this out of the way, I present to you, _Valence_.

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Chapter 1: Stargazing

From one horizon to the other, from the streets of Vale to the spire of Beacon, the world of Remnant was bathed in the soft glow of moonlight as the atmosphere was alight with the twinklings of distant stars. Nary could a sound be heard from the jutting cliff connected to that prestigious school. From this vantage, two grand spectacles of human achievement could be envisioned: one being the silhouetted school that's appearance would have been imposing if not for the few warm lights that spilled from its windows while the other being the sprawling terran nebula that was the city of Vale. It was only at night that these two marvels could seem truly alive to a distant onlooker. During the day, the rolling, verdant treescape of the Emerald Forest and the adjacent, perennially autumnal Forest of Forever Fall dominated the view from this overhang. However, it was as far away from that time as it could get as the moon hung lazily above, lacking the will to reveal the damage that had been done to it.

A warm breeze fluttered across this cliff, rustling even the most insignificant blades of grass and bringing with it the change of seasons. This zephyr drifted almost aimlessly along the grassy formation. Atop this vista was a stone bench made for more, but seating only one. The wind drafted up to the solitary construct and quickly overtook it, cooling the bench and warming its occupant.

Blake Belladonna relaxed upon the cool stone bench, letting her gaze shift between the stars and the city. A slight gust ran through her hair and across her skin. While a cold breeze would cause a shiver and recoil, this warm breeze caused the young woman sitting on the bench to let out a content sigh—to let her guard down without the prying eyes of outsiders watching over her.

It was only in the middle of the night that the supine form on the bench could find total solace and completely relax. To gaze up at the stars would be to let her mind wander to distant, fictional adventures that she could only read of in her novels. To cast a glance to that distant city would be to yearn for an adventure that she could call her own. However, she was content with lying upon the bench and admiring the scenery around her for the time being. It was with these sights that the Faunus girl could achieve peace and total solitude.

While her disposition towards other members of the school had become more accepting in general over the past few months of her attendance at Beacon, she could not shake the feeling that she could still not let her guard down around everyone. In fact, this is one of the causes of her flight to this naturally formed terrace: she wanted to be alone. While this sort of retreat would have been spurred by an affinity for isolation or hints of potential aggression against her at the beginning of the year, her early hour adventure on this night brought her to this cliff in search of a peaceful quiet. She had undoubtedly become more comfortable around the student body of Beacon Academy, if only marginally. But despite all of her progress of assimilating into a more social environment than she was used to, she could not let go of her tendency to stray from society.

Fortunately, Blake felt that it was safe to be herself around one particular group of people. Whereas Blake would choose to completely hide herself from the general population and even make herself somewhat scarce around the student body, she found that being around Team RWBY was a positively enriching experience. She found that she could do what she wanted without being judged even if the majority of her desires were to spend her free time reading and consequently detaching herself from whatever conversations arose. With Team RWBY, she had not only found a group of Huntresses-in-training who would become steadfast allies, she had found a group of friends that would last for the foreseeable future.

Her life before her attendance of Beacon left much to be desired in terms of friendship. Between the general aversion of the Faunus race by the general population and the increasingly militant actions of the White Fang, Blake found opportunities to forge true relationships to be few and far between. Upon arriving at Beacon, however, Blake found that despite the events of her past, she was welcomed whole-heartedly by those that she could now call "friends."

As she gazed up at the stars, finding known constellations and rationalizing new ones, Blake reflected upon those who had so drastically affected her life since coming to the academy. She thought back to the first day, when the airships came in from all corners of the Kingdom of Vale. It was in one of these airships that Blake found herself faced with her first obstacle of the year: large groups of people in a confined space. While she felt confident in her ability to hide in plain sight amongst a crowd, this deception did no good outside of combat or reconnaissance scenarios. Instead, she found that her tactic of joining the mass of humanity in its epicenter caused more people to want to converse with her. This only caused her to back out of the group and awkwardly stand as far away from anyone else, leaving her in the open for a potential attack, but free from any unwanted conversation. Needless to say, her first day did not start out so well.

Once she stepped out of the airship and back onto solid land, the calm, cool demeanor that so many believed to be Blake's regular personality was pieced back together. Although she still had to remain around the same group of people as she waited for her luggage, she was able to cope due to the greater amount of room the masses had to disperse. While the wait for her singular suitcase took longer than expected and she had to brush of more attempts of conversation from others than her conscience would have liked, Blake was able to leave the docks with her sanity intact and with her suitcase's latch only partially so.

It was on this day that she learned that her time with the White Fang was not a completely fruitless period in her past. With the organization, she had intended on fighting in a more diplomatic manner for those who could not fight themselves. While this diplomatic approach did not last for long, she found that this willingness to fight for a righteous life for all had become second nature through her first interaction with her eventual teammates, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee.

She had come across the duo after hearing an explosion and choosing to investigate. To say that she was surprised to see the girl in white would be an understatement; seeing such a high-ranking member of the company her former associates had been at war with left her in a state of confusion. This state was spurred by the indecision between two conflicting choices: whether to verbally attack the young woman due to her association with Schnee Dust Company or to run and hide and hope that she would never come in contact with the girl again. Her mind was made up after she realized why she had come to Beacon in the first place: a fresh start.

In her quest for a fresh start, Blake had adopted the idea that whatever happened in her past would stay in the past. Unfortunately, second nature instincts could not stay in her past.

The scene that she arrived upon was that of Weiss berating Ruby for a mistake that had been made involving her collection of Dust. Blake believed that a slap on the wrist would have been adequate, but the insults coming from the young heiress were far worse than that. Seeing Ruby being backed into a corner and unable to fight back, Blake intervened.

The subsequent interaction with Weiss was now one which Blake regretted, but one she knows was imperative for Ruby's sake. Blake built the heiress up by listing the achievements and stating the fame of her family's company before bringing her down hard by listing its controversial business practices and questionable violations of accepted ethics. She doubted such a strategy would work on any regular person, but it was proven effective against a girl raised in a business-centric environment for all her life. With this interaction, the argument between Ruby and Weiss could be considered finished as Weiss stormed off to some location that even she was probably unsure of. Blake departed from the scene just as Ruby was about to thank her.

Looking back on that departure, Blake thought she might have been a little too detached for her own liking, leaving the obviously flustered Ruby alone to mutter appreciations to her. Perhaps her initial outwards appearance of calm, cool, and collected might have gone too far into the realms of cold and detached. However, her conscious would find at least some reprieve from the events of the day on her first night at Beacon.

She met Ruby later that night in Beacon's ballroom and made the beginnings of a friendship with the young girl. What was a simple gesture of intrigue towards Blake's literature struck a chord in Blake's mind concerning what this fresh start entailed. This simple gesture meant to Blake that despite the failed relationships she had had in the past, she could now begin to open up to others and find some sense of true camaraderie between people of righteous causes. This willingness to accept Ruby as a friend was only supplemented with Ruby's noble—albeit idealistic—cause for becoming a Huntress.

Unfortunately, Weiss had to interject herself in the same insulting fashion that Blake had come across earlier in the day. While Blake did agree on some level that the conversation they were having could have been disturbing others, the way that Weiss had handled the situation was a bit too hostile for Blake's taste. It was for this reason that Blake blew out her candle.

The first day alone had shifted Blake's perspective on how social interactions should be and how they would affect her life in the years to come. Hearing the bickering between her soon-to-be teammates, she caught herself with a mirthful smirk that she had to constantly suppress. The way they interacted was as though they had no worries in the world outside of those immediately presented to them. It was different—refreshing, even.

Blake moved on the stone bench so that she was lying on her side, staring off into the distance at the gleaming city that casted a halo of warm light up into the surrounding atmosphere. The wind was still blowing as gently as it had been when her reminiscing started scant minutes ago. Her hair moved with this wind, causing some of it to blanket the arm not touching the bench. Despite the large distance between the cliff and the city, Blake's amber eyes reflected the lights of the capital as she gazed into the glow with an unguarded, hopeful happiness.

Looking back upon her team, she found that she failed to reflect upon the third—and arguably the most important—member. Yang Xiao Long was Blake's partner who was as brash, loud, and energetic on the battlefield as she was off of it. At a first glance at the partnership, one would believe that cooperation would be nonexistent as both partners seemed to be polar opposites. Where Yang was outspoken, Blake was reserved. Where Yang dealt with battles head-on, Blake kept to the outer edges to strike at an opportune instance. Where Blake was outgoing and social, Blake was, admittedly, shy and was prone to social anxiety. Though the two did contrast in many regards, this contrast lead to a wholly effective team dynamic, making the two nigh unstoppable on a battlefield. On top of that, Blake found that the conversations that she had with the blonde brawler were consistently enjoyable.

Between the travels, battles, and discussions that the two had as partners during school assignments and the conversations at lunch about analyses made by the blonde about classes and their teachers, Blake was left without a second of boredom when around the girl. While Yang tended make bad jokes from time to time and sometimes did make crude remarks, she was able to elicit a smile from Blake—or at least an amused smirk that often substituted for a smile. It was safe to say that Yang was Blake's first real friend at Beacon and as such, Blake found that Yang could drag her into misadventures and make them enjoyable.

Chiefly among these misadventures was what the rest of Team RWBY referred to as the moment that the bunk beds came into being but what Blake refers to as the "Banzai Incident." Blake still will not let go of that spontaneous outburst of ridiculousness when she joined in on the sisters' joyful exclamation. The rationalization for why she did this changed from "promoting a better team dynamic" to "really wanting bunk beds" to "getting back at Weiss" (for what reason, she wasn't sure.). The true reason for this outburst was to try to get in Yang's good graces by gradually acting more like her in slight ways.

Blake had found that straying from the proverbial crowd did nothing but hinder the entire team. She found that she needed to go along with the whims of the group if she wanted to be a better part of the team. She found that by being around the other members of the team, she could create a better bond in battle and a lasting friendship between the four of them. Distance created distrust for all parties.

Blake shifted once again on the bench, lying on her back for the second time this evening to stare up at the lunar mass. Tonight was a full moon, making the landscape all the more serene with its gentle glow. In this stage of the lunar cycle, the wreckage that covered just under a half of the moon's surface could not be seen. Soon enough, however, that debris would be visible from every point on Remnant for a few nights before returning to hide behind the complete half.

She thought back to the one moment that definitively showed that attending Beacon meant a fresh start for her life. While Blake was prepared for tensions to rise between herself and the Schnee heiress, what she was not prepared for was the way that she had acted when tensions boiled over. After harsh words were exchanged between the two, Blake found herself fleeing not only for her safety, but for the integrity of the team. Most of her decision-making process in this instance was spurred by the momentary loathing of the racist views of Weiss; however, Blake's hurt feelings had never before caused her to run away from a problem. What made Blake run from the group was the thought that if the argument continued, the team would become disjointed. She didn't want to be the cause of the rest of the group resenting Weiss. Even if Weiss was a Schnee, Blake found that the girl had the capacity to be amicable in her own way, so when the argument came to be, Blake wanted nothing more than to make amends.

Nevertheless, Blake ran away—an action that she found to be a recurring event in her life. This retreat gave her time to ruminate on why Weiss would think the way she did about the Faunus. It was with this time given for thought coupled with the revelation that the White Fang was working with Roman Torchwick, an increasingly problematic Dust thief, that Blake was able to form her own judgment on the situation: the White Fang was a severely misguided organization. She had felt this way prior, yet rationalized their decision to become more militant as a simple conflict of interests. Now she was sure the White Fang as an organization was in the wrong. From this observation, Blake was able to empathize with some—but not all—of the things Weiss had said about the White Fang.

While the subsequent apology from Weiss left a great deal unsaid, Blake had accepted it nonetheless. Tension still remained between the two, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been. Because of that apology, though, Blake was able to feel more comfortable about her Faunus heritage around Team RWBY to the point where she was able to put up with some of the jokes about her being a cat that came from Ruby and Yang since they were simply jokes and not callous, racist insults. There was a limit to her capacity to deal with said jokes, but that is neither here nor there.

All in all, her time at Beacon had exceeded her expectations. She had found a way to put her skills on the battlefield to a good use, she had found solace in the fact that she was accepted despite being a Faunus, and she had found a group of friends that legitimately cared for her. She let out an audible sigh as she felt another warm breeze grace her skin. It was then that Blake could hear the grass of the cliff crunching not too far away. Her Faunus ears rose to attention as she tried to make out what the sound was. Between the early hour of her excursion and the only ambient noise being the soft hum of the breeze, Blake was easily able to figure out what the sound was and who was approaching. She would know that carefree, energetic gait anywhere.

Blake moved so that she was sitting in an upright position on the bench, reclining slightly so she could still gaze up at the moon and the stars. The noise of the grass being matted down drew closer and was accompanied by a faint yawn by the approaching figure. Blake was honestly surprised that she hadn't heard the newcomer sooner than she had. It took only seconds from the time that she heard the noise of the footsteps coming for them to stop close by.

"Hey, Blake!" the figure called in the same cheerful tone that she always had, though tiredness was seeping its way into the words. "Whatcha doing out here?"

Blake turned to look at her partner who, despite obviously being tired, exuded the same warm energy that she often did in the heat of a battle. She seemed to be unfazed about standing barefoot in the dewed grass with nothing but her pajamas on. Blake had to give her credit; the girl had guts. Blake had changed into her combat clothing before coming out here; even the thought of going outside with her pajamas on mortified her. Yang's lilac irises locked with Blake's amber orbs for a moment before Yang gave a smile that seemed to rid herself of any remaining exhaustion.

Blake returned the smile as best she could, knowing that she could never match the warmth of Yang's grin. "Good evening, Yang," she greeted cordially.

"Evening?" Yang asked incredulously, proving that she was without a doubt now wide awake. "If anything, it's morning!" Blake simply smirked and shook her head, looking back to the city in the distance. For one reason or another, Yang jumped in front of Blake's view with her hands on her hips. "You didn't answer my question," she mirthfully accused.

"It's seems you are right," came her response which led to an indefinite silence. Blake knew that the longer that she held this silence, the harder it would be to suppress a grin, but knowing that every second that passed made it harder for Yang to be patient made it all the more easier to keep going. This teasing did not last too long, as Blake was not a sadist at heart despite her current action. She lightly chuckled, causing her partner to give her a joking glare. "Just stargazing is all."

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" Yang asked before unceremoniously seating herself on the bench. "I would have joined you if you asked." She reclined in a way that seemed to mirror Blake's position on the bench.

Blake felt the urge to slide over on the bench to give Yang more room, but decided against it. There was enough room for the both of them on the bench and Blake didn't particularly mind how close Yang was. The Blake from earlier in the year would have moved over, but not the Blake of now. The combination of the mimicry of her posture and the proximity between the two girls caused an odd smile to appear on Blake's visage.

"Not much good in stargazing if the only thing you can see is Vale," Yang offered suddenly. While Blake had been looking up to where the extraterrestrial stars were, Yang had become entranced by the artificial stars that illuminated this kingdom's capital. "Though I will admit, it is beautiful out tonight; don't you think?"

Blake turned her head to find Yang giving her a toothy grin. Even though Blake had known Yang for well over half a year by this point, she sometimes couldn't tell when Yang was genuinely enchanted or just being facetious on a subject. Still, heat rose to Blake's cheeks at even the possibility of a compliment. She could only hope that the moon wasn't bright enough to expose this moment of vulnerability to her partner. "Mhmm," she hummed in affirmation. "Although," she started, "the light pollution makes it somewhat difficult to see some of the constellations."

Yang was taken aback with obviously feigned incredulity. "Light pollution?" She sounded appalled. "Pffft. As if light could pollute anything," she huffed. This was one of the moments where Blake could be certain that Yang was kidding.

Once again, Blake shook her head, trying to keep a laugh from escaping. At this, the potential conversation became nothing but a comfortable silence between the two as they watched their respective stars. The young Faunus noticed that the comfort of the warm breeze was replaced by the warming aura of the brawler and she wouldn't complain. Blake had come to realize over the months of her attendance of Beacon that her partner seemed to always have her aura active. With Yang's Semblance being based in fire, her ever-present aura meant ever-present warmth for herself and those around her.

Somehow, with Yang's presence, the stars seemed to shine brighter and the capital below seemed more regal. Blake looked over at her partner and could not restrain a small smile, knowing that she would never be able to express how grateful she was to have her as a friend. She watched as Yang took in the sights in a seemingly excited manner. That girl who sat next to Blake had singlehandedly brushed off any worries on Blake's part concerning her past that could affect her future.

The girl in question trained her gaze to the girl in black. Blake quickly turned her head to face forward, hoping that the other girl had not caught her staring, causing her face to flush all the while. Either Yang hadn't noticed or she didn't mind the staring as she initiated conversation once again. "So…" she drawled, prompting Blake to look back at her. "What are you planning to do over the break?"

In her preoccupation with adjusting to her new life at Beacon and her current action of gazing at the stars, Blake had managed to push "the break" of which Yang spoke into the recesses of her mind. "The…break?" It was not so much a question to Yang as it was an attempt to remind herself of long-forgotten information. The same warm breeze from before came back and blew through the girls' respective hair. Blake remembered now what the referenced break was: summer break after the end of her first year at Beacon. While she had made the connection as to what Yang was talking about, elaborating on her plans would prove to be a trickier action. "The break…hmm…ummm."

Yet another situation arose where Blake was unable to tell if Yang was serious or joking. "Blake!" she gasped, shocked at the unsaid statement. Blake steeled herself for the incoming lecture about how it is necessary to take breaks from schoolwork. "You can't be serious." She was answered by Blake looking at her hands that were folded in her lap. This caused another gasp. "You mean you're just going to stay home and do nothing?"

Blake, unable to look further down than she already was, made a noise that indicated that she was about to say something, but stopped herself prematurely.

Another gasp. Blake thought that this might have been a little too dramatic for her tastes, though she probably deserved it with how deep she had buried herself in her schoolwork. "You aren't even going home?" Blake shook her head solemnly.

Yang stood up in front of Blake, blocking her view of the city. "Well, that settles it then." Blake looked up to her curiously. What settled what? Yang must have caught on to that inquisitive stare as she stated her idea. "You'll just have to stay with us for summer break."

Blake's brows furrowed. "What?"

"You heard me!" Yang stated resolutely. "You'll just have to stay with Ruby and me for summer break."

"I heard you the first time. I was just checking to make sure I had heard you correctly," said Blake. The offer was a bit sudden and the break was still a few months away. While the offer seemed generous and made Blake want to smile, she didn't expect anything like this after just remembering that they had a summer break. It wasn't that the offer seemed off-putting—quite the opposite, really—but that something so kind and sympathetic hadn't existed in her life prior, causing the situation to be all the more foreign.

Yang extended a hand. "So, what do you say?"

Blake stared at the hand then back at its owner. While the thought of spending more time with her friends seemed absolutely delightful, the reserved demeanor that she strived to uphold would not approve of something like this. She could only think of the harm that she could do to Ruby and Yang's break. She would spend her time reading when the sisters would probably want to go outside and do things. She believed that her interests would conflict with theirs. "I'm sorry, Yang, but I just don't think you'd like that."

"Nope," came the immediate, unwavering reply.

"Nope?" Blake thought she had heard this somewhere before.

"Nope," Yang repeated. "You're our friend, Blake. And as your friend, I insist that you spend your summer with us."

"But all I will want to do is read for the most part. You've seen me during the day; there's not much else to me outside of that." She may have been hard on herself, but she believed it to be the truth.

"Nope." Blake could have sworn that she'd heard this kind of conversation before. "If you stay with us, we'll let you do your own thing if you want to, but I guarantee you'll have fun if you join us!" She added a playful wink at the end that somehow caused Blake to rethink her denial for a second.

"Yang, I don't want to impede on anything you two have going—"

Yang cut her off with yet another "Nope." Blake rolled her eyes. Yang truly was incorrigible sometimes. "I can't leave my battle buddy alone here! Whatever happened to 'improving group dynamics'?"

The question was met with no reaction for a few moments as Blake mulled the offer over. Did she want to spend time with her friends? The answer was obvious; it was either accept the offer or remain at the school and hope that she wouldn't be forced to head home. Blake sighed, shaking her head and only just suppressing a smile. "Fine I'll go." After coming to a realization of where she had heard the speech before, she added, "You really are Ruby's sister, aren't you?"

"No—I mean, yeah!" She grinned the same toothy grin for a few seconds before registering what Blake had said. "Wait. What? You'll come?" Blake noticed the unrestrained glee coming from the girl, judging from the way that she was bouncing on the balls of her feel.

Blake smirked. "What, do you need a written RSVP?"

With that, Yang jumped into the air and pumped her fist—an admittedly over-exaggerated gesture, but one that was a very Yang thing to do. "Alright!" she exclaimed loud enough that she could have woken just about everyone in the academy. Blake couldn't help but chuckle. The blonde extended her hand once more. "This is gonna be great."

With a genuine smile on her face, Blake took her hand and was promptly pulled to her feet. Despite the fact that she still wore her heeled boots, she was still only just shorter than her partner. "If you say so," she hummed.

"Oh, it will be," Yang assured with the beginnings of what looked to be a devious, if not excited grin. She looked once more at the city before looking back at Blake and yawning. "C'mon. It's late and we need to get to sleep." While Blake was usually a night owl, she felt the grip of sleep closing in on her, causing her to yawn as well. This caused Yang's grin to form into a smirk. "Besides," she began, "we've gotta be well rested for what I have planned for us this summer."

The way that Yang had said that was slightly disconcerting to Blake, but she assumed that it was all in good fun. She returned Yang's exuberant smirk with a condescending smirk of her own. "You do know that our break begins in two months, right?"

"Of course _I_ know. I'm surprised you did." Yang combated the condescending smirk with a mischievous one. "Two months gives me more than enough time for planning." Blake was about to interject with a question as to what the planning was for, but Yang halted that by taking her hand and pulling her towards the academy. "Time's a wastin' Blakey, and I need my beauty sleep!" she exclaimed.

Blake blushed at the sudden contact and variant of her name, yet couldn't bring herself to dispute either one and instead chose to let herself be led by the brash blonde. Even with her practiced balance forged over years of training, the Faunus girl could not keep from stumbling slightly as Yang rushed towards the academy building. Blake was not too keen on the less-than-stealthy approach that Yang lent herself to in her reentry into the building, but she would cope. This did not mean that she wouldn't worry for school security while they "snuck" back into the school—after all, what were partners for?

The two scurried down the halls like children running from a parent that had nothing against them. For one reason or another, the two were joyous in the antics that they were now a part of in staying out after curfew. Previously, something like this would be a nonissue, but with the excitement growing over plans made for the future, even the most insignificant of incursions seemed excitingly felonious. Blake found that Yang held the widest grin she'd ever seen from the brawler while she, herself, held a carefree smile of her own. Gone for the moment was the reclusive and detached former White Fang member, and in her place was the happy Blake Belladonna who was legitimately having fun.

When the two reached the entrance to their dorm room, Blake pulled Yang to a halt. It was in this pause that Blake found herself catching her breath for the first time in a long time, having lost her sense of pacing with the excitement of recent transgressions. When Blake looked to her partner, she found that the blonde looked as though she could fall asleep standing up despite the energy that seemed to radiate off of her the second before she was halted.

Blake shook her head at the sight, finding it funny, but also finding it unwarranted for a laugh in the hallway at this time of night. She caught the blonde's attention, and whispered, "Yang, we need to be quiet. Ruby and Weiss are still asleep." She was returned with a noncommittal grunt. She added, "And telling Ruby about this can wait until tomorrow. Understood?" Yang drowsily nodded, allowing Blake to pull out her electronic scroll and unlock the door.

As soon as the door was open, Yang shambled into the room. While she didn't make any noise, it wasn't by her own volition; nothing happened to be in the way of her blind wanderings in the dark. Even with inherent night vision, the only thing Blake could see pertaining to Yang was the huge mane of golden hair crawling up onto the upper bunk. To think that she put on the façade of being awake just to convince her into going made Blake's eyes roll.

She saw the sleeping forms of her teammates, blissfully unaware of the two who were still awake. Blake made it a point to be as quiet as possible as she made her way over to her bed and found her pajamas she had left folded on her mattress. Knowing that Yang was adjusting herself on her bed, Blake took the opportunity to quickly slip out of her combat attire and into her yukata while no one could see. In a matter of moments, she was folding her clothes and placing them underneath her bed with the majority of her belongings. After running through a mental checklist of things that should be in order, Blake resigned to her bed.

As her head hit the pillow, the weight of the day prior's happenings began to take their toll on the Faunus' consciousness as she began to close her eyes. However, before she could drift off to sleep, a faint voice could be heard from directly above her. "Hey, Blake?" Yang whispered, tiredness seeping into every slurred syllable.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really excited about this summer."

Blake smiled warmly up at the mattress above her. "Me too."

"And Blake?"

"Mhmm?"

"Thanks for doing this." There was a moment of pause. "It means a lot to me."

Heat rose to Blake's cheeks upon hearing the praise. "Thank you for inviting me. It means a lot to me as well."

Yang hummed happily above. "It's gonna be great," she seemed to audibly say to herself, "I get to spend my entire summer break with my best friend." Blake chalked this up to delirium caused by lack of sleep but nonetheless blushed harder at the newly given title. "Night, Blake," she heard the muffled voice above whisper.

"Goodnight, Yang."At this, Blake rolled onto her side, facing the wall. The voice above had ceased its conversation after those departing words, leaving Blake to believe Yang had drifted off to sleep. While Blake was tired and wanted nothing more than to sleep at that moment, her mind raced, fueled by the promise of that invitation, and left her wide awake and with a perpetual smile. "Best friend," a title previously inapplicable to any individual in her life. She didn't believe she deserved the title—she didn't believe she deserved to even be called a "friend." She wouldn't complain and the more she thought about it, the more she came to accept Yang's title. Her sentiments went so far as to even apply the title to Yang as well. It had only been months since their first meeting and she was sure that there was something there—something she couldn't quite put into words or past experiences.

To think that what started off as an escape from a militant organization and an attempt to do good for the world would turn out to be the decision that would bring her into the company of such great friends was baffling to the young woman. She expected that she would be able to only run away from her problems but never lose sight of the strife spawned from her prior association between herself and the White Fang. Between the hospitality of Team RWBY and this new invitation, memories of her life prior to her attendance of Beacon were washed away and were replaced by genuine optimism for what was to come.

She turned so that she could watch the bed above her, gripping her sheets all the while in elation as she silently thanked her partner—no, her best friend. She imagined what they would do over the summer, hoping that they would spend their free time in a way much different than she had before her time at Beacon. Rather than attend "peace" rallies on mandate, she could spend her time reading. In lieu of gathering intelligence on oppositional forces, she could spend her time with her newfound friends. Instead of having the ever-present anxiety of the possibility of harming innocent people, she could enjoy the ever-present warmth of living in the now.

She silently thanked Yang once more before succumbing to her exhaustion. Slowly, but surely, she slipped into the embrace of sleep, her head filled with dreams of abstract warmth and happiness. Blake could, without a doubt, say that sleep for her became a much more enjoyable process without having to dwell on the nightmares of her past and instead being able to appreciate the dreams of her future. Blake's dreams leading up to the beginning of summer break would focus on an unfounded, ever-present warmth, leaving a lasting smile on her face as she slept.

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This chapter (not including author's notes both before and after) amounted to 6,336 words at the time of posting. This is not my attempt at bragging, but my attempt at warning. This chapter is short for me—laughably so in relation to what I usually write. Expect chapter lengths to average out at just above 10,000 words. This chapter is one outlier in the range of chapters and so is the next. The next chapter will be a polarizing one, causing readers to either give up on the story entirely or become somewhat familiar with my style of writing. I don't think many will be prepared for the word count attached to the next chapter—thus is one of the reasons I choose to post on a Thursday: to allow the reader the weekend to read the chapters if they are unable to complete them due to excessive word count. Until then, I direct you to my profile for supplementary information. Stay safe and stay tuned.


	2. Chapter 2: 12 Hours

Wow. I expected some sort of response from the Fanfiction community but it never truly dawned on me how that response would affect me until it actually came. To say that I am thankful would be an understatement. I'm not normally one who likes praise directed at me but the positivity coming from the reviews and the visitor count in the traffic statistics is humbling in the best way possible. Thank you all who took the time to read chapter one. Though, I have to say, that positivity has set a bar for me to strive to achieve for every chapter. While the challenge is healthy, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't scared. That being said, I'm going to try to do my best to reach the level of quality expected from me.

I do apologize for this lengthy author's note, but I feel that there is something to be said that needs to be understood for the length and writing of _Valence_. I'd like to preface that I normally do not condone pointing out a review as nothing good can result from it. However, I got a review on this story (Don't react negatively, this explanation turns out positive.) concerning my writing style that brings up a few points that I would like to clarify. I have had friends and colleagues in the past tell me to stop using a thesaurus and to not be flowery for the sake of being flowery. I generally don't use a thesaurus because I know that doing so can be borderline addictive (There was a dark part of my life where I used a thesaurus as a crutch for my writing.) and any imagery I write serves both a descriptive and utilitarian purpose. My personal philosophy on writing anything at all is to not censor myself by using words that I wouldn't normally use, be it by dumbing down diction choice or finding the most fitting "big word" that can make me sound smart. I don't use a thesaurus for the majority of my writing; most of what you see is my natural vocabulary (I've always had a fascination with unused words.) and though it may seem excessively flowery or forced, it is certainly not fake. Using the unused words is a part of my writing style and I use them to create a story that I would like to read.

At the same time, I understand that excessive use of unfamiliar words can be uncomfortable to a reader. I take no offense if someone cannot connect to my writing style and decides to leave this story—I tend to do the same thing with writing styles I don't like. However, the argument that the writer should accommodate the vocabulary for the reader is, in my opinion, wrong. If I dumb down the words I use, I undermine the intelligence of the reader. By keeping the unused and "unnatural" words, readers can acquaint themselves with a broader vocabulary thus causing a smarter reader base for—potentially—all of Fanfiction.

Still I can take from this criticism some form of positivity. I've read more than a few fanfictions before writing this story and I have seen that very few writers in the fandoms I have read try to make themselves stand out amongst the crowd through their writing styles. I think that there are two things that will distance myself from the crowd (How fitting for this story.): 1. My vocabulary—while not the most intricate, it is my own. 2. My narrator construct. This second item has reared its head in chapter one and will once again in chapter two, but it will become readily apparent in chapter three as to why my narrator construct differentiates itself from the crowd. In summary, I will not make an attempt to censor myself through using more accessible words when I have a fitting word in mind nor will I truncate a sentence for the sake of digestibility.

Furthermore, I have seen numerous stories with chapter lengths similar to mine with requests for the author to segment the chapter to make it able to be read in a single, convenient sitting. While others may do so, I will not. I see this as a form of censorship upon myself. Every chapter of a novel should have a beginning, middle, and end and have a general purpose and theme for it. My chapters are written this way, so segmenting them would disrupt the flow of the chapter and the importance of the chapter's theme. Even this chapter, as large as it is, has a point throughout it that stayed consistent for the most part. Had I cut this down into four 5,000-word parts, that point would have been lost. The length of my chapters are taken into account for the feel of a chapter. This chapter is intended on being read in one sitting to induce fatigue and familiarity on the part of the reader. Breaking the chapter up into smaller segments would eliminate a feeling of fatigue where it is thematically necessary. Fortunately, I have not had a review tell me to segment my chapters, but I can see it happening, so I am writing this to preemptively take my stance on the subject.

I am sorry if this came across as defensive as it is not intended on being so. This isn't my bashing of the reviewer. Quite the opposite, actually; taking the time to go out of one's way to list the negative characteristics of something takes a certain amount of care. Criticism is criticism, no matter how bold or direct it may be. So, I thank that reviewer because he or she drew attention to a potential flaw in my writing that I am now cognizant of for this story.

Once again, I apologize for this long author's note and am pleased to tell you that it is near its close. I've probably revised this chapter the most out of those I've written so far. I like this chapter, I am proud of this chapter, and I hope you enjoy this chapter as I do. At its time of posting, this chapter numbered 21,905 words without the inclusion of author's notes or Fanfiction's horizontal lines indicating a break. Without further ado, chapter two of _Valence_.

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Chapter 2: 12 Hours

Blake was not roused from her slumber by the warm summer breeze that flowed from the open window nor did she awake from the shuffling of feet, movement of clothes, and the clicks and zips of various travel cases. No, Blake Belladonna—she who could go to sleep later than anyone and still wake up before everyone—could only be awoken by her loud, energetic partner. The reason why the blonde was able to awaken the Faunus was not the volume at which she spoke but the fact that she was the one speaking it. Yang, with the amassed excitement caused by the first day of summer break, shouted to the sleeping girl, "Wakey, wakey eggs and Blakey!" at a distance far too close for comfort. This caused an unexpected "eep" from the team leader, but no visible reaction from the intended target.

On technicality, she was awake after that shout, but chose to keep her eyes closed. Partially, it was to convince herself that the previous pun did not exist. Partially, it was out of resentment to someone else trying to wake her. But for the most part, it was to try to reverse the tired state that she was currently in; the warm weather just made her want to doze. She thought about getting up, but decided against it. What was the rush, anyways?

"Yang! Keep your voice down! She's trying to sleep!" she heard Weiss scold in a moderately considerate volume. The noises of the movement of various belongings became apparent to the "sleeping" Faunus. She thought about what the noises could mean for half a second before abandoning these thoughts in favor of remaining in her ignorant, semi-conscious stupor.

Yang scoffed. "Well, that's the point, princess! I'm trying to wake her up!" Blake could hear Weiss huff and could imagine her turning away in disinterest. That is, she did imagine it until she felt her bed tremble from the weight of a newcomer who began softly and incessantly shaking her. "Come on!" she heard Yang exclaim, exuberant as ever. "Up and cat 'em!"

Rolling over onto her other side, Blake faced the wall and internally groaned. She could tell that Yang was not going to relent with the puns until she was woken up. With her movements, however, she had somehow reached some reprieve from the shaking.

She could hear Yang groan before hearing her sister offer her opinion. "Come on, Yang. Just let her sleep. We aren't in any rush." Blake believed that Ruby was being a great leader in this particular instance—she was looking out for the good of the team. Unfortunately, she wasn't good enough as the new weight on the bed had not moved.

"Don't worry about it, little sister; she told me to wake her up." She was lying through her teeth and Blake had half a mind to kick the blonde off of her bed. She heard the girl hum in open contemplation. This did not bode well in Blake's mind, knowing that whatever machinations Yang thought up would inevitably cause her to awaken. Her Faunus ears betrayed her and involuntarily twitched at the thought. The contemplating hum from Yang turned into one of playful malice. "Well," she drawled, "desperate times call for desperate meas-ears."

Blake, now wide awake and having both eyes snapped open at the implications of the pun, sat up straight and pushed herself against the wall and away from Yang's now extended hand. Breathing quickly and scanning the room rapidly, Blake blurted out, "Alright, I'm up." Now that she was awake, she could see both Ruby and Weiss turned away from the blonde, rubbing the bridges of their respective noses.

Yang, on the other hand, had retracted her arm and put on the cheesiest grin she could before greeting, "Well good morning, beautiful!" She winked and was thusly sent to the floor.

It was too early to blush or feel flustered, so Blake executed the only idea that she deemed rational at the time: she kicked Yang off of her bed. As she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, she looked towards the other two members of her team. "Good morning, Ruby; Weiss."

Weiss simply gave a small smile and nodded her head in an unspoken form of greeting while Ruby cheered, "Morning, Blake!" Blake smiled at the happiness that seemed to radiate off of the younger member of the team. However, that smile disappeared as soon as Yang sat back up and rested her head and arms on Blake's bed and began to pout.

"What? No love for me?" she asked, only just holding back crocodile tears. Once again, Blake's Faunus traits unwittingly twitched at the piteous sight that evoked sympathy, false though the act was. Despite this, she kept her composure, not letting her instinctual discomfort with the sight become evident.

Blake returned with a glare that harbored no ill will towards its recipient, but nonetheless was intended to look frightening. "You made three terrible jokes, tried to shake me awake, and then went for my ears when I was vulnerable. You're lucky I'm acknowledging you right now." While she was slightly peeved about the situation, after looking around the room and realizing what day it was, she was slightly grateful to be woken up. After all, she had slept in later than she usually did. The clock in the room read 11:00 a.m.

"Aw, don't be like that, partner." Yang stood up and quickly adopted as confident a stance as she could, hands resting on her hips and eyes directed upwards and off into space. With this, any resemblance of a negative emotion that she previously had was completely gone. "It's summer break for Pete's sake! So, get up, Blake, and grab what you need to take!"

Exasperated groans came from all in the room except Yang, who had a satisfied grin on her face. "Really?" Blake groused, "Rhymes?" The puns were at least tolerable for the most part, but if Yang continued rhyming, Blake might have just fallen back asleep out of indignation. She shook her head and stood up from her bed.

As she looked around the room, she found a multitude suitcases that were identifiably Weiss', judging by the immaculate whiteness of them, and two that she believed to be Ruby's. Neither seemed to be completely finished with their packing. This only led Blake to believe that Yang had not even started with her own. This was only supplemented by the fact that nobody had cared to change out of their pajamas by this point. Blake looked to Yang. "I'm going to take a shower first, then I'm going to get ready to go. By the time I get back, you need to have already started packing." Her words and intentions were resolute and the look she gave Yang carried this point.

Yang stood up as straight as she could and gave an over-exaggerated salute while exclaiming with a smirk, "Aye aye, Captain Belladonna!"

Blake simply rolled her eyes and suppressed a smile before she turned to the dorm room's bathroom. Before entering, she gave a look to Ruby and Weiss that could only be given between those who had witnessed and survived an arduous, traumatic battle. She grimly said "Good luck" to the two before entering the bathroom. She thought she saw the two shudder slightly as she left, but they would just have to deal with Yang's unrestrained excitement. After all, it was the beginning of summer break and Blake needed to get ready.

She brought with her the attire that acted as both combat gear and casual wear so that she wouldn't have to take another trip into the bathroom to change. She instinctually turned on the shower to let it run and warm up before she looked into the mirror. Surprisingly, the sight that met her eyes was not one of a girl woken up from too few hours of sleep, but one that looked full of energy but purposefully bored. Blake knew that even with the pain brought on by the puns and the rhymes, she was just as excited as Yang was about summer—on second thought, she believed that Yang was relatively reserved for how much energy she could be expressing if she wasn't on school grounds. Either way, Blake let herself smile as she disrobed and made her way into the shower.

She and Weiss had not caught onto the affliction of laziness that was attributed to the coming of the end of the year like Yang and Ruby had. The two sisters had lost interest in the classes that involved more stationary actions long before finals even came to mind. That being said, the two had zero problems with the more combat-oriented finals. With Blake and Weiss, however, their studiousness carried them all the way through the end of the year. This work ethic allowed the two to coast along without troublesome boredom and impatience wearing their spirits down. By the time summer break came around, it was a pleasant surprise for the both of them while for the sisters it was a saving grace long awaited for.

It is not to say that Blake did not highly anticipate the coming of summer. In fact, ever since the invitation from Yang two months ago, even reading could not sate the boredom induced by short periods of doing nothing in the middle of classes. If Yang had noticed her excitement on the matter (Which she undoubtably did, as it was fairly obvious in the days leading up to the end of the year.), then she didn't show it or tease Blake for it. Blake could just imagine the remarks Yang could offer about how her hidden excitement so contrasted her reserved personality. Yet Blake was not ashamed of her excitement. When one lacks friends for as long as she had, thoughts of what others think of you for wanting to be around your friend are thrown to the wayside.

In that regard, Weiss was proving to be contrary to this concept. Blake knew that the heiress was at least mildly excited about the summer and had admitted herself that she didn't have many friends growing up. Of course, she had used the word "many" to cover for the word "any," but nobody on Team RWBY choose to judge. While she did have the level of excitement and lack of friends parts down, she was not willing to show how excited she was, which was fair in its own right—she could act whatever level of "proper" she wanted to. However, this veiling of enthusiasm would only lead to teasing from Yang later on.

After hearing of Yang's invitation to Blake for her to spend the summer, Ruby was overjoyed. However, in its standard usage and accepted connotations, the word "overjoyed" acts as an egregious understatement to the level of jubilation which young Ruby Rose showed that day. She had acted in much the same way that Yang had on the days following the acceptance of the invitation, albeit in a speedier, more overzealous manner. This entailed her telling either Blake or Yang the places they were going to go—with names she acted as though Blake was supposed to be familiar with beforehand—what they were going to do, and always ending with how much fun they were going to have. Eventually, the gears that had begun to spin in Ruby's mind about how she was to lead her team to fun times allowed her to remember one important fact that she had overlooked and devised a plan to rectify said error.

It had taken a surprisingly low amount of cajoling to convince Weiss to go with the rest of the team. From what Weiss had said, there had been some issues going on back home that she didn't want to return to for the moment. Nobody on the team asked anything about it and instead welcomed the heiress with open arms into their venture. It was at this point that an overenthusiastic Ruby exclaimed, "Team RWBY is going to Vale!" This then caused Weiss to shoot her down by saying that they already had gone to Vale for the Vytal Festival and Tournament.

While it was true that the entire team had gone to Vale before, they had only been around where the tournament was held and were not able to attend the festival. This had been Blake's only experience in Vale. She expected Yang and Ruby to have been familiar with the area since the two lived there and had attended Signal Academy. She also expected Weiss to have at least visited the city before since it was the capital of the kingdom and thusly the epicenter for all business in the region. However, because of Blake's Faunus heritage and previous association with the White Fang, she had never felt safe enough to visit the city. This caused her view on the city to be completely based on the time she had spent in it during the Vytal Festival and Tournament, and even though the beginning was marred by her disagreement with Weiss over the ethics of the White Fang and the general innocence of the Faunus race, she found that she quite liked the city. Though, from the view alone from on top of her favorite cliff jutting from Beacon, she knew that she had not even scratched the surface of what the city had to offer. Vale was huge.

What this meant was that the claims Yang and Ruby had made about how much fun they were all going to have could plausibly come to fruition. Judging by the number of places Ruby had named with proper nouns, the ever-expanding itinerary of fun had the definite potential of happening—even though it may not be completed. While this list had fueled Blake's hopes for the break with the guarantees of a time she had never experienced before, it seemed to have put off Weiss, although Blake believed this to be a form of masking her own excitement.

While Weiss was normally the sort of person to welcome rules, regulations, and plans, she had stated on numerous occasions that she thought having Ruby plan the entirety of their time out of school would be a hazard to their health. Ruby was not the one planning the summer, nor was Yang. Rather, it was implied that it would be democratic as all friendships are in that if someone wanted to do something, she would suggest it to the group and then the group would decide. Ruby and Yang's respective ideas were simply that: ideas.

No matter what though, all ideas prior to the time they would arrive in the city could only be speculation and would change almost immediately after they landed. That's what added to the mystery, to the adventure that Blake desired. Even if she had said that the real world was not the same as a fairy tale, she still wanted an adventure similar to those in the many stories she had read over the years. It was from this hope of adventure and fun and friends that she could smile unabashedly and feel no shame for being excited. This didn't mean that her reserved personality would leave her by any means. This just meant that she could be a little happier while upholding her reserved look.

The sound of cascading water slowed to a trickle as Blake stepped out of the shower, feeling ready for the day ahead and more accepting of Yang's earlier actions. She figured that her partner had done so in her best interests. Still, the rhymes might have been a bit much. Blake redressed into her combat attire and folded her yukata. She had to make sure that she was more than ready for today because the majority of the expected activities would be travel-related. Seeing as how the airship ride would take at minimum six hours to reach the capital and having factored in the times of waiting for the ship to depart and the time it would take to retrieve their luggage after, Blake figured that the group's sunk cost for the trip would be at least eight hours. She began her morning ritual of hygienics as she stared into the mirror.

Despite the clear view from the cliff at Beacon, Vale was a good distance away from the school. There were no roads leading directly from the city to the school that could scale the sheer cliffs of the campus. This left the land routes to have to go around the cliffs and eventually lead up the mountain. And even still, these paths were generally treacherous and had gained infamy from driver negligence that resulted in fatal accidents as well as frequent ambushes set up by the Grimm. This left the only safe way to travel to and from the school with airships. However, this did not mean that the airships were convenient. Due to the threat of aerial Grimm such as Nevermores, the school had a protective barrier of sorts around it. What this barrier did was induce a time dilation field so that any aerial entity, be it airship or Nevermore, would be subject to their flight times slowing by a factor of three so long as they remained inside the barrier. This caused the airship ride to last six hours where without the field, it would only last two. What this also did was create a large disconnect between the relatively young student body's school life and their social life outside of school. Professor Goodwitch stated that the barrier was to "improve efficiency" in this way.

Once Blake was finished, she stepped out of the bathroom to find only one person finished packing. The air of content smugness could not be ignored had one looked at Weiss in that instance. Even when she had six suitcases to fill, she had still been the one finished the fastest and she seemed to silently lord that fact over the sisters. While still not technically finished, Ruby looked to be ready to go at a moment's notice. She had one suitcase already filled, latched, and placed near the door while her second one was left open to reveal foam padding with a rounded rectangular mold in it. Blake could only assume that it was meant for Crescent Rose which Ruby was currently nuzzling as though she would never see it again. Blake also observed Weiss looking particularly nonplussed by this show of affection.

The final member of the team was meanwhile in the midst of packing, living up to the promise that she had made. Yang was currently throwing everything of hers that she could find into her suitcase haphazardly. It was with this action that Blake noticed something, for lack of a better term, off about the girl in yellow. It was not a change in mannerisms or mood, but one of attire. Gone was the padded, reinforced jacket that Blake had seen all year. In its place was one that looked almost identical to the other one, just without so much protective gear sewn into it. It looked to be a lighter, more casual jacket that went over top of her regular combat attire. It was a hardly noticeable difference, but it seemed to make the already carefree girl seem even more easygoing.

With this delayed revelation, Blake looked around the room once more and found that Weiss, too, had changed her regular attire in a not-too-obvious way. She was missing her jacket that she usually wore, leaving her in what looked to be a sort of summer dress that was almost identical to the attire she wore underneath her jacket.

Meanwhile, Ruby had not changed, probably due to the fact that the young scythe-wielder was always ready for a fight. That, coupled with the fact that she probably didn't want to lose track of Crescent Rose or her cloak, made Blake able to empathize with the duality of her own attire as both combat-ready and casual.

Her observations were halted when Weiss spoke up. "Get moving Blake! We don't have time to be standing around." Even after the incident concerning Blake's Faunus heritage and the subsequent reparations made to Blake, Weiss was still able to nag at her like nothing ever happened. But she was right—albeit a bit rude in her presentation.

Blake stepped over to her bed, passing by Yang who quickly gave her a self-satisfied grin for following orders before going back to packing. Blake allowed herself to smile softly as she reached under her bed for her suitcase. As soon as she pulled it out and had it above her bed, it unlatched itself, but unlike the first night in the dorm, nothing spilled out. After the first time, Blake displaced the rest of her belongings so that they wouldn't be damaged in a future incident like this. While she did only move them to either the bathroom or underneath the bed, the fact of the matter is that her belongings would be safe until she dealt with the pesky latch again. However, she would have to deal with that pesky latch again today.

She pulled all of her clothes except for her school uniforms out from under her bed and placed them in the suitcase. Unlike the rest of her teammates, Blake did not bring any superfluous items of clothing, instead opting for several replicas of her combat attire. She reasoned that if she was going to attend a battle school, she would need to bring as many copies of combat attire as she needed to. She also believed that her time at Beacon would solely consist of schoolwork and battle and nothing else.

After packing her clothes, she moved over to the bookshelf and picked out a few books that she would like to read over the break and a few that she wasn't willing to keep at the school unattended. She eventually decided on bringing only ten books with her. This number, however, was to be only the perceived amount that her teammates could see her carrying. She was bringing along two extra books and kept them hidden on her person until she reached her suitcase. One was a novel of questionable subject matter, titled _Ninjas of Love_, while the other was a diary that was masked as a large, hardcover book with a title that came from an almost dead language. The idea for the latter book was that nobody on the team would even attempt to look at the book since it looked so externally boring. This measure was set up specifically for her partner.

Blake ran a mental checklist to find what else she needed. In a matter of moments, she found that there wasn't anything left that she believed was necessary for the extent of her vacation. As she stood, she heard a loud banging noise off to her side. What she found was Yang jumping on her suitcase which seemed to be overfilled. What was worse was that she seemed to be having a great time with the endeavor.

For some reason or another, be it the copious amount of inefficiency displayed or the potential for Yang to hurt herself, Blake felt the need to speak up. "Yang?" she asked hesitantly, hoping that if she could speak in a quiet, reserved voice, she wouldn't inadvertently cause the blonde to fall.

"Yeah?" Yang returned, almost completely preoccupied with her packing that she hadn't realized her volume was that of a shout.

Blake's ears twitched at the sudden rise in volume, but she was undeterred by the brashness. "Do you need any help with that?" She had no idea how she could help with the suitcase as overflowed as it was, but she felt that it would only be fair to offer.

"Nah," Yang drawled, "I've got it, don't worry—whoa!" At this, Yang nearly fell flat on her face; that is, she would have, had it not been for Blake's quick reflexes. What resulted was Blake catching Yang before she could fall and causing the blonde to grip onto her partner in a hold that almost resembled a hug. This almost-hug quickly turned into a real, rib-crushing hug as Yang lifted Blake off of her feet whilst proclaiming, "My hero!"

It took only seconds for the contact to fluster Blake and the residual air in her lungs to fail her. "Yang, put me down! We still need to pack!"

It was then that Weiss interjected. "Speak for yourselves. I actually have time to waste now that I'm finished."

This was followed with Ruby's own, "Yeah, speak for yourselves!" Weiss looked about ready to commend her partner before seeing that Ruby was continuing to cuddle Crescent Rose, muttering, "I just need a few more minutes with my baby."

Yang released the hold she had on Blake, causing the Faunus to struggle to regain both her balance and her breath. Whether or not Yang knew that Blake was unable to rebuke this statement due to a lack of oxygen from the hug, she nevertheless spoke up. "Pipe down, princess. Not all of us have had as much time as you to pack." She glanced at Blake. "On top of that, we don't have as many cases as you do to put all of our stuff in." She pointed to her own case, which had flung itself open with the lack of anyone jumping on top of it.

"Well, excuse me for not sleeping away most of the morning. And if you must know, most of those cases are holding Dust—highly explosive Dust," she retorted and sent a look to Ruby—who was still unaware of the world outside of Crescent Rose. "I'd rather not blow up the airship on the way there. What about you? Hmm?"

"Well, why are you carrying around Dust, then? We're only going on summer break." Apparently, the snark found in the heiress' question was unable to affect Yang. "We're coming back here anyways."

Weiss crossed her arms and looked away. "I don't trust anybody here to not steal any of my Dust." She then turned back to Yang. "Furthermore, if my fa—"

She was cut off by a loud, strained clicking noise. Yang and Weiss turned to find Blake standing by Yang's suitcase, now closed. If one were to look closely, one would see faint beads of sweat on her forehead and the remote beginnings of a self-satisfied smirk. However, Yang was not looking at her, but what she had done. "Wha—How?"

Blake gave an externally apathetic shrug as she stepped away from Yang's closed suitcase. "I didn't jump on it," she stated in an equally indifferent manner. Internally, the girl was cheering herself for what she had done.

Yang sent her a playfully annoyed glare. "My hero," she stated in a tone mirroring Blake's supposed indifference. Blake smirked and rolled her eyes, causing Yang to perk up and replace her glare with a grin as she turned back to Weiss. "Alright; I guess that solves the packing problem." She looked to Blake. "You ready to go?" The energy radiating off of Yang's grin was too much to keep Blake from suppressing a smile of her own. Blake nodded.

"In that case," Weiss started before clapping her hands twice in quick succession. There was a short period of silence where Blake and Yang looked at her like she was insane before to dorm room door opened quickly before welcoming seven older men in suits, all wearing immaculate white ties. They stood at either side of the entry way with their hands clasped behind their backs as they stood awaiting orders. The eldest of the group made his way towards Weiss.

"Lady Schnee, how may we be of assistance?" the man asked. Blake thought them to be butlers at first, but judging by their arrival right as the team was ready to depart, she reasoned that they were Weiss' personal porters. With this in mind, Blake thought that she had seen two of the porters before on her first day at Beacon. Yang simply gawked at the sudden intrusion while Ruby still focused her attention on her scythe.

Weiss cleared her throat and smirked for a moment before suppressing the emotion. Blake thought the heiress might have been having too much fun being back in her element. "You may take our luggage down to the airship docks and prepare our belongings for the flight." Once again, she clapped twice and the porters were set in motion.

Four of the porters began to move Weiss' suitcases with the utmost care and with probable knowledge that the cases held invaluable Schnee family Dust or the infinitely priceless Myrtenaster. Ruby did not seem to be phased by the rapid movements of the porters as she hugged her folded scythe one last time before placing it in the foam-lined case. Blake thought the girl would burst out in tears at any second. After Ruby closed the case on her scythe, she stood up as tall as she could, trying to diminish any possible signs of hesitation before she handed both of her suitcases to a porter. As the man left, Ruby actually did burst into tears as she waved and exclaimed, "Goodbye, my love! I will see you soon, I promise!" Blake watched as Weiss' face began to flush from what the Faunus believed to be embarrassment from having Schnee family workers see the team the young heiress had become a part of. However, it is to be said that as deductive and observational as Blake may be, her rationalizations for others' apparent emotions are not always correct.

Blake knelt down in front of her own luggage, making sure everything in order for the trip. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one porter struggling to pull Yang's suitcase out of the room, failing to even bring it off the ground. Yang patted him on the back and gave words of encouragement all the while. Blake rolled her eyes at the energetic girl's antics.

By the time she had made sure everything that she would need was there, Blake was able to carefully close the latch on her luggage. While the case did close, it felt weak—as though it wouldn't hold. As she stood, she watched the latch and noticed small motions that managed to shake the normally collected girl. When she could manage to distract herself from the broken fastening, she sensed a presence standing behind her.

"May I take your bag, Lady Belladonna?" the voice of a porter asked.

Ignoring the honorific for the moment, Blake gingerly lifted her suitcase in a consistent horizontal position and handed it off as such to the porter. Before she let go, she told him, "The latch on it isn't working correctly, so be careful. It has a tendency to open when vertical."

"Absolutely, Lady Belladonna," the man agreed. "We were prepared for such an event and will be able to rectify this situation." He added with a smile, "Don't worry. Your belongings are safe with us."

Blake smiled back and thanked him before he departed. He was the last one who carried luggage to leave the room and thusly closed the door behind him. As soon as the door closed completely, Yang whirled around on her heel and looked at Blake with a still-confused expression on her face. "Well, that was a thing."

In turn, Blake looked to Weiss slowly before asking, "Weiss, why did he know my name? And why was he prepared for my latch to be broken?"

Weiss turned away and murmured something. Yang, who practically stood the same distance as Blake did from the heiress, could not hear what she had said; however, due to Blake's enhanced hearing, she could make out what Weiss had said. The heiress had stated under her breath, "Because I wrote home about you all."

Due to Ruby's close proximity to Weiss, she was able to hear the utterance and was able to be distracted from her mourning of the loss of Crescent Rose's presence. She lifted Weiss off of her feet in a hug not dissimilar to the one Yang had given Blake earlier, shouting, "She likes us! She really, really likes us!" After all of the over-exaggerated exclamations that Ruby had made throughout the day so far, Blake was beginning to think that summer had already gotten to the young girl.

Weiss thought much the same way but in a slightly more negative light—one pertaining to the potential degradation of the young girl's common sense and even sanity. "Ruby Rose, you put me down this instant!" Ruby did so immediately and looked not at all ashamed for it. As soon as Weiss was able to stand on her own, she pretended to dust off her dress and act like nothing at all had happened while the coloration on her features proved evident that something had happened—at least in her own mind.

"Anyways," Blake drawled. The room was for the most part empty, barring the remaining collection of books, assortment of posters and paintings, and the multitude of disheveled beds. Despite all of this, the room seemed empty, and not in a sentimental way, but more in a way that told Blake that it was time to get moving. So, she said exactly that. "I think it's time we get moving. There's nothing left for us to do here is there?"

The response she got came in the form of Yang hooking her arm through Blake's while saying, "I like how you think, partner," before pulling her out the door. As she left the dorm room, she exclaimed "Onwards and upwards!"

Moments later, Weiss could be seen pulling Ruby out of the room by her cloak.

* * *

With the opening of Beacon Academy's front doors, the warmth and hospitality of summer truly descended upon both Blake and Yang. In that moment, all of the stresses of school, all of the anxiety about social ranking, and all worries about the past went up in flames as the golden sun temporarily blinded the young Faunus girl. Without her ocular senses, Blake had to rely on other means of perceiving the world.

The radiance of the star prickled her skin momentarily before the combination of the heat and the breeze created paradoxically cool warmth that inspired a renewed vigor and brought a smile to Blake's lips. The light humidity that hung in the air clung to the skin not even for a fraction of a second, allowing the young Faunus to acclimate quickly to the temperate summer climate attributed to this region of Vale. A light, feeble breeze blew across her features. She could feel it cool the heat imposed upon her by the sun and move the fabric of her clothes and any unsecured locks of hair. It was in this breeze that the scent of freshly mowed grass and the sounds of distant cheering and chatter were brought before her. It was in this moment of sensory epiphany that Blake knew that the world was vivid and alive and welcoming. She knew that she could open her eyes and be unaffected by the initially brash introduction of this new season.

What she saw was no longer the impenetrable wall of white light of blindness, but a calming, welcoming, cyan sky that seemed to glitter from one horizon to the other. While the sun could not be seen, its presence was known from the vibrancy of the colors of buildings and nature alike and the severe lack of shadows that normally spawn from any form or entity. This lack of shadow frightened Blake to an extent, having no place to turn to if she had to resort to her Semblance, but it calmed her in a way; it made her aware of the fact that she probably wouldn't have to use her Semblance anyway. As she gazed across the long concrete promenade that extended to the docks, she could see friends and teammates wishing each other farewell. The idea of splitting up a team due to a three-month break seemed foreign to the girl, but then again, much had been foreign to her before attending Beacon.

She was awoken from her reverie by a tug on her arm and an exclamation of, "C'mon, Blake! Our ride's here!" before being forced into a run.

Blake shook the hesitation that had riddled her mind and began to cooperate, choosing to run alongside her partner. As she regained her focus, she felt the necessity to ask, "Why are we running? We still have time until the ship leaves."

This was returned with a toothy grin. "We have to get the best seats before somebody else gets 'em." Something about that grin told Blake that Yang had ulterior motives, but she paid the thought no attention, choosing to accept the reason and freely run beside her friend.

Blake couldn't help but smirk at the over-confident, over-excited face that Yang was making as she ran. The blonde had not once shown this sort of enthusiasm in any classroom or anything that was not a fight. Seeing this expression now, Blake knew that the girl by her side wanted only to go home and begin her summer break. Even with these ponderings, Blake was able to urge Yang to speed up by running a bit ahead of the blonde. The enthusiasm radiating from the brawler was infectious.

It took only a minute for the two to reach the docks. Holding a hand above her eyes, Yang began to scan the area for the airship that would bring her home. Blake had doubted that her partner would be able to find the correct one from the distance she was from the signs, but this thought was proven wrong with an "Aha!" and a pointing finger from Yang. Blake didn't even try to locate the ship the finger indicated, choosing instead to follow Yang.

Entry onto the airstrip offered no resistance whatsoever. The conductor had welcomed the two aboard with a smile and opened the door for them without having to see identification of any sort. The only challenge Blake foresaw by this point was the search for seats that was to come.

With the school the size that it was and the potential occupancy the airship could hold, Blake was surprised to find the ship relatively empty. There were no real clusters of people nor did there seem to be any real conversations occurring outside of cordial small talk. Yang, still having her arm linked with Blake's, pulled the Faunus over to a corner of the airship where seats were arranged in sets of two that would face each other. She still carried that grin that seemed to become more wolfish as time wore on as she unlinked their arms and sat down on the seat closest to both the back wall and the window.

Blake quickly glanced over her shoulder which resulted in Yang telling her, "Come sit down." She patted the seat next to hers. "They'll be here any minute." The appeasing wink she gave was enough to make Blake patient and sit down next to her partner.

She was prepared for Yang to try to start up some sort of conversation because of the mischievous grin earlier and her previous track record with being alone with someone, but found that by the time she had taken her seat, Yang was staring wistfully out of the window. This was odd for the blonde girl who had made an effort to always go out of her way to strike up a conversation or just be generally more outgoing than she usually was whenever she was alone with Blake. Blake believed that these were attempts to "break her out of her shell"—which Blake would object to, as she believed she was fine just the way she was—but then again, it could have just been an attempt at starting a friendship. Either way, the friendship had been formed and Blake was happy with it.

What didn't make her happy was the fact that she didn't have a book around to pass the time. Due to the airships coming to and from Beacon Academy—a school that trains Hunters and huntresses—there have been travel restrictions set in place for the students and staff of the school. One of such restrictions is the barring of any carry-on luggage that any students or faculty may have. The reason for this is because anyone who attends or works at Beacon owns some form of weapon that could destroy the airship easily. Due to the requirement of not having weapons in the cabin, a rule was set in place to bar any carry-on luggage in the case that one was to hide his or her weapon inside of his or her carry-on. While Blake understood why she couldn't have a book with her, it didn't make her any less annoyed at the perpetual silence.

She resigned to sitting back and relaxing as best as she could. Perhaps when Ruby and Weiss got there, they could all do something to pass the time. Until then, Blake scanned the ship's cabin, taking in the sights and finding nothing that interested her. She then looked to Yang and found that the blonde hadn't noticed her. She continued to watch Yang gaze out of her window into nothing in particular. She was lost in thought just as Blake was.

Blake couldn't help but stare at her partner. She watched Yang's lilac eyes drift back and forth, lazily watching the horizon in an utterly bored manner. She admittedly thought that Yang was portraying boredom rather elegantly. There was little doubt that Blake found her partner to be attractive in some regards; she thought that the way Yang covered up her incredible strength with an unsuspecting beauty to be impressive to say the least. This was the sort of figure that Blake looked to achieve herself: physically able but in a way that it is not immediately known. That and the fact that Yang could turn any negative into a positive was a more than appealing feature.

Romance for Blake was but a novel idea. There was one individual in her life who she thought she could be with, but that could never be—she left that part of her life behind when she ran away and joined Beacon. After her impromptu departure from the White Fang, Blake truly believed that all that was left for her in life was to rectify the mistakes she had made through being a huntress. However, it was Yang that showed her that there was more to offer at the school in the forms of friendship, life-endangering antics, and even happiness.

While Blake may have still thought that a relationship was impossible for her, she had still harbored feelings for her partner. The principle cause for this attraction could not be pinpointed to any time or event; rather, it is to say that these sentiments came into being at one indistinguishable point during her attendance of Beacon and have grown all the while. Ever since that night on the cliff two months ago—where Yang had shown dedication through enduring exhaustion and joining in on one of Blake's preferred pastimes—Blake had felt that Yang had been more than a friend to her. Perhaps it was just a feeling that Yang was more of a "best friend," but Blake knew better. These sentiments had time to evolve over the months between then and now into something more affectionate than friendly. It is to say that in the days leading up to the break, these feelings rose to a fever pitch as the admirable qualities of the blonde became more pronounced with the excitement of impending summer. There was not a soul on Remnant within Blake's available memory who had cared for her not as a Faunus, student, or former member of the White Fang but as Blake Belladonna except Yang. Of course, the rest of Team RWBY accepted her in time as such, but it was Yang who had been the first and the most enduring.

During the year, Blake had come to realize that it was not only her and Yang's battle tactics that contrasted and complimented each other, but their personalities as well. It was in this balance of energetic and collected, outgoing and reserved, and impatient and patient that Blake found Yang to be the most tolerable person on the team and in the whole school. It eventually came to the point that some of Yang's characteristics rubbed off on Blake. As the year progressed, Blake found herself more prone to smiling and expressing her emotions. Similarly, Blake and found that some of her own characteristics had rubbed off on Yang. Currently, Yang was sitting still, gazing out of the window, and patiently waiting for the other two team members to arrive. While Blake could tell that her partner was still anxious, she showed an incredible amount of patience. This allowed Blake to grow impatient and choose to stare at her partner even more.

She watched her partner absentmindedly stroke her mane of golden hair that was now draped over her shoulder. She watched as her lavender orbs absorbed the sights on the horizon. She watched her foot tap to an inaudible beat. What she didn't see until it was too late was the blonde's head turning and those lavender orbs locking with ones of gold. Blake couldn't help but blush. Yang couldn't help but smirk.

"Hey, Blake?" Blake expected some sort of teasing remark to come from her partner, but the sincerity laced into Yang's speech was nothing less than surprising. Blake looked up, unable to restrain the heat in her cheeks caused by being caught and Yang's unexpected tone of voice. "Thanks for doing this," Yang said. "I know I've said it before, but it really means a lot to me that you chose to come."

"Really, it's no problem," Blake dismissed. She consciously tried to reduce her blush, but she could not for some reason.

"No, really. Thank you." Yang pulled Blake into a one-armed hug from the side, making it impossible for the Faunus to control her blush. "I mean, I like Ruby and all—don't get me wrong, she's a great sister—but sometimes…" She paused, her face contorted in mental exertion. "She's a little bit much. Do you know what I mean?" Blake didn't have a chance to respond before Yang continued. "It's just that…" Yang sighed, bringing her arm back that had been wrapped around Blake's shoulder. This allowed Blake to recompose herself and sit in a posture that did not lend itself whatsoever to nonchalance. "It's just that it's only been me and Ruby for a while." Yang hung her head in what appeared to be shame. "I mean, I love my little sister to death but…" She sighed again and hunched over in her seat.

Blake placed a comforting hand on Yang's back. "But you're just getting a little tired of the same thing all of the time. Is that it?" Yang, for a fraction of a second, looked surprised before she smiled back at Blake. Blake, too, was surprised; how she had recovered from such a flustered state to one where she was able to be extroverted and calm her partner confounded her.

"Yeah," Yang sighed. "Ruby and me haven't had friends over in a _long_ time with me being a little protective of my little sis and her being—well," she said. She gave a short, sad-sounding chuckle. "And with Ruby being Ruby. I just feel that if we'd gone for another break, we'd end up at each other's throats." Yang's eyes dropped to look at the floor. "I'm sorry if this sounds selfish, but I…I'm just really grateful you came along."

From what Blake saw, she thought that her partner was about to break out in tears, but then again, Yang was strong—crying over something like this just didn't seem to fit her personality. Either way, the blonde looked distraught and Blake acted in the only way she thought was remotely rational, even if she didn't exactly know how to execute the action.

Yang was pulled into a hug by Blake which was quickly returned.

Such a public display of affection or caring was something Blake had never wanted to be associated with, yet here she was hugging her partner in a public space. Her blush had faded by this point and did not return when she made contact with Yang by her own volition. There was something about this action that struck a chord in Blake and felt existentially right. "It's alright," she soothed, surprised by her own words. She felt Yang bury herself in her shoulder. "There's nothing to be ashamed about. You two need your personal space but have been unable to find it. You've been a great sister to Ruby for caring for her as you have. I'm sure she's just as happy about Weiss coming as well."

Blake could feel Yang's lips pull into a smirk on her shoulder. She felt Yang shake slightly from light laughter before hearing the muted comment of "You have no idea." Yang then pulled back from Blake, grasping her shoulders all the while. "Thanks, Blake." She had an ecstatic gleam in her eyes. "This is going to be the best summer ever," she stated before pulling Blake into a hug of her own. This time, Blake's blush did return, not for the action of the hug, not from the heat exuded by Yang, but because of the thought of that gleam in her eyes.

By this point, Blake was comfortable with the current form of contact with Yang. However, she would only be comfortable in this action if it were not a public spectacle, which up until this point, it had not been. Too engrossed in their action were they that the outside world became a nonentity for the duration of the hug until it was eventually interrupted .What interrupted this air of solitude was a chipper voice cheering in a sing-song voice, "Oh, you two are so cute!" Now, because Blake's face was already flushed before the voice sounded, she was not able to tell whether the increase in heat in her cheeks was coming from her embarrassment or Yang's. Yang, being the outgoing, fire-Semblance user that she is, has a habit of increasing the temperature of the vicinity around her if she is unable to keep certain emotions in check. One such emotion was embarrassment.

"Break it up, you two, before you make me sick," nagged the chiding voice that could only come from Weiss. Sure enough, when the two broke from their hug, both were sporting crimson dustings on their respective cheeks. They didn't have time to apologize before the other two teammates took their seats. Ruby sat close to the window and immediately started scanning the horizon, albeit in a much more intrigued way than Yang had. Weiss sat on the outer seat with arms crossed and glaring at Blake and Yang simultaneously. "Explain yourselves," she commanded.

Blake was surprised to find that a flustered Yang bumbled through her words. This would have made Blake smile had it not been for Weiss' icy gaze. "Wha—I—Umm—We uhh…"

Weiss groaned. "Not that. I don't care what you two do in your free time; just tell me why you ran off." She was pinching the bridge of her nose. In Yang's defense, Blake also thought that Weiss was commenting on their hug.

Yang laughed nervously and played with her hair. "Well you see," she started. She looked to Blake who perceived this as a cry for help. She motioned her eyes down towards the seats a few times. Yang turned back to Weiss. "We were reserving our seats?" Though this was a statement, the lack of conviction in its presented tone made it seem like it was a question.

Weiss sighed and shook her head. "Fine," she resigned. Despite her word, the way she said it and the look on her face told only the fact that she didn't believe Yang. This made Blake question the logic for rushing to the airship as well. While she did trust her partner, the suddenness of Yang pulling her to the airship that had so few occupants and with so many minutes to spare before either takeoff or their other teammates' arrivals was odd. However, her wonderings on the subject were cut short by another voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking," squawked a voice from the speakers located in invisible locations around the cabin. The new voice caused Blake to refocus herself, Weiss to let out an indignant huff, Ruby to face forward in her seat and pay attention to the voice, and Yang to let out a sigh of relief. "The current time is 11:47 a.m. We are scheduled to take off in fifteen minutes for the city of Vale. Due to barrier restrictions, the flight will last about six hours in total. E.T.A. for Vale is 6:30 p.m." This remark seemed to cause both Yang and Ruby to sigh dejectedly, be it due to the amount of patience required for the trip or for the inability to start on their mental itinerary of fun this night. "Please take your seats. We will take off in approximately fifteen minutes."

It was then that Ruby gasped, causing all members of Team RWBY to look at her, ready to remedy any problem that might have arisen. "Has anyone seen Jaune?" Blake and Yang relaxed in their chairs at the anticlimactic crisis, both very much indifferent on the matter of the mentioned student. Meanwhile, one of Weiss' eyes visibly twitched.

Yang waved it off. "He said that Pyrrha invited him to her town so that she could continue his _training_." She air-quoted the word "training" and proceeded to shake her head. "The poor kid probably believes that she's going to actually teach him how to fight or something. I bet Pyrrha has something big planned for the two of them." Blake saw Yang look at her out of the corner of her eye quickly before looking conspicuously straight ahead. Blake had a sneaking suspicion that her partner was up to something but chose to hold off on getting answers until the two were not in sight of Ruby or Weiss.

"Yeah, it's kinda sad, really," Ruby added. "I mean, they change the subject whenever we say anything about the two in the same sentence. He even freaks out when we mention that she's his partner." Blake was surprised at the transition Ruby had made from her earlier, more energetic self. If she had to guess, she would say that Ruby was aware that she had to be patient and control herself by limiting her outbursts for the sake of pacing herself.

"I don't understand what Pyrrha sees in him," Weiss offered. "Personally, I think he's done something to her. I wouldn't put it past him to drug her."

"That's a little harsh, don't you think?" Blake asked. "You may not like Jaune, but he's a nice person—a bit naïve—but a nice person. I think that what Pyrrha sees in him is her business." She looked to Yang. "Though, I think you're right. She probably does have something planned if she invited him over to her house."

Yang smiled a toothy smile before saying, "I don't think Jaune's the only one who's naïve about this whole situation. After Pyrrha realizes that Jaune came to actually train, she might be motivated to train him and not do anything else."

"Yang, let them have their fun. It's their summer and what they do is none of our business," Blake said. Then she adopted a small, mischievous smirk of her own. "Though," she started, "if they don't come back a couple, that only means that we can _talk_ to them about it after the break." This elicited an excited smile from her co-conspirator and an indignant scoff from the heiress.

The conversation dissipated after this, so the group resigned to taking to their own methods of passing the time. Ruby and Yang stared out of the window, Weiss simply sat with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, and Blake took the time to look around the cabin again, searching for any face or object that could pique her interest. Time slowly ticked away for the minutes that lead up to takeoff, but as soon as the occupants of the cabin heard the whirring of the engines, a renewed enthusiasm spread throughout the passengers' minds. Weiss' demeanor did not change at the new sound and motion unlike her partner's had. Ruby was positively giddy as she bounced in her seat. Blake looked over to find Yang smiling warmly at nothing in particular—though she could have sworn Yang was looking at her out of the corner of her eye.

The airship ascended at a comfortably quick rate, causing the students inside of the cabin to feel the slight downwards pull of liftoff. It took only a few minutes for the liftoff and taxiing processes to be complete. Then came the initially soft backwards pull on the students' forms as the ship drifted forwards. Hardly any change was felt when the machine climbed to cruising altitude and speed. The droning of the engines became a commonplace occurrence in the ears of the passengers and was eventually tuned out as the voyage truly began.

Though Blake could not see the land directly below her, she could see the horizon comprised solely of the Forest of Forever Fall slowly leaving her sight, dropping below what the window allowed to be seen. It was in this sight that she saw Yang staring dreamily out of the window and allowed herself to smile softly. Perhaps her preconception from the beginning of the year about how having some sort of friendship was a bad idea for her was wrong. The view of that golden mane, those vivid violet eyes, and her perennially warm expression inspired a confidence that most of her preconceptions she had brought to Beacon were nullified. In this sight, Blake saw that solitude might not be the only option for her.

If one chose to put his or her ear against the window, he or she would be able to hear the rapid gusts of wind that could only be attributed to a fast-moving vehicle. However, due to the barrier's effects, the shifting horizon slowed to a crawl despite the relativistic high speed. Surprisingly, the sluggish movements did not affect either of the excitable sisters, but Blake instead.

Blake, who was used to stealthy, quick movements in combat and having to deal with a rambunctious, loquacious partner and best friend, found herself growing anxious as time passed and nothing happened. She had been the same way on the ride to Beacon: bored beyond belief and irritated at the barrier erected by the school. She found flaws in the logic of keeping up that barrier around a school designed to train Hunters and Huntresses. She knew that Nevermores were the most imposing aerial Grimm known and the main reason why the barrier was erected. However, she and her team had slain a Nevermore during initiation—the first real day at Beacon. So conceivably, an entire school filled with teams who had passed initiation could take on a few Nevermores and live to tell the tale.

After her introverted tirade about the triviality of the barrier, Blake found herself begrudgingly without anything to do. She looked to her other teammates who seemed to be in different forms of meditative trances of sorts. Weiss still sat with her eyes closed and arms folded while Ruby and Yang still looked out the window, Yang once again tapping her foot to an inaudible beat.

Blake sighed and weighed her options. She could stay awake and deal with the boredom, hating every minute of the ride. She could also try to converse with her teammates, but she figured that she might disrupt their trances and unintentionally cause them to suffer with her. The final option she considered was to take a nap, but that would entail completely letting her guard down around others—an action that didn't sit well with her. The insecurities that arose from her time with the White Fang had not ceased to exist, making Blake hesitant to sleep in the company of others. She found it extremely disconcerting when she learned that she would have to sleep in the ballroom on her first night at Beacon.

However, she had been able to sleep in the company of her team. There was only one instance where her teammates displayed anything other than geniality and Weiss was still trying to make amends for it. The accepting personalities allowed Blake to feel secure and even guarded to an extent. All of her teammates were more than competent fighters who always kept their weapons close. She felt that if a situation would arise, they wouldn't turn tail and run like those in the White Fang would have.

With this in mind, she decided that she would doze off. She didn't alert anyone; they would probably understand. She reclined slightly in her chair and closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them, they would have touched down. Darkness encroached upon her already closed vision. She was cold without a blanket, but was undeterred and took comfort in the radiating aura of her partner as she slipped into a light slumber.

* * *

There was an incredibly comforting sensation that ran through Blake's mind. She was awake, but only slightly so, choosing to keep her eyes shut as she had that morning. The sensation was constant and warming, causing her to make a sound she had strived for so long—years if her count was correct—to not make around anyone.

Blake purred.

This seemed to halt whatever the sensation was for only a moment. The warm feeling returned with greater fervor than it held before. Blake couldn't feel specifically what the sensation was nor could she hear who or what was causing it; the only things she could focus on were the feeble purrs that she failed to suppress in her tired state and the unidentifiable action that caused them.

She had to will herself to open her eyes halfway. When she did this, she found that the majority of her senses returned to her, though not at their optimal efficiency. What she could tell from this was the fact that the sensation derived from a warm entity beside her and a particularly gentle scratching of the area around her bow. This revelation brought her senses to a new, heightened state.

While she didn't move, she became aware of the events and entities that were in her immediate vicinity. Weiss and Ruby were not in their seats, though their presences were nearby. Yang, however, was in her seat and was found to be the one who was scratching the area around the Faunus' bow. Blake knew that Yang understood that her bow was not just a bow and yet she was scratching it softly.

Blake found herself in a muddled state of confusion, worry, and blissful comfort. Even if she was comfortable with sleeping around her teammates, this action was surprising to say the least. She would have felt that it was uncouth had the action not been so soothing. Blake resigned. If it was anyone else—even Weiss or Ruby—she would have stopped the action; but because Yang was the one scratching her Faunus ears, she let this incursion slide just this once.

"Morning, Blake," she heard a respectfully quiet version of Yang's voice say. The scratching did not cease.

"Alright, she's up. Now let's get moving." Through half-lidded eyes, Blake saw Weiss with her arms crossed in a stance more of indignation than the previous position of metered patience. Standing next to her was Ruby, making it clearly evident that she was growing impatient with the rapidly shifting glances she gave to every object in the room.

"Hold on, hold on," Yang said, still in her soft voice. "Let's let her wake up first."

Blake heard Weiss groan. "We don't have time for that. They're going to usher us off any minute now!" Contrastingly, Weiss didn't try to keep her voice down as she talked in the presence of a half-asleep Blake. However, impatience and underlying giddiness were hard not to spot despite externally annoyed features.

"Then let them," Yang said simply and without a trace of malice in her tone. By this point, Blake would have awoken, however the ministrations kept her from becoming fully functional. She could hear Weiss huff, probably out of defiance and partly due to Ruby's influence on her. "Just go on ahead," Yang started, "we'll be out in a minute."

Weiss looked as though she was about to say something, but all that resulted was her turning and walking away with Ruby following close by. As the sound of her heels clicking against the floor faded into silence, Blake was able to focus more on the scratching. Unfortunately, that scratching eventually slowed to a halt. Blake unwittingly moaned in yearning dissatisfaction. Even after the fact, she did not realize that she had made this noise for she had been too wrapped up in the loss of the sensation.

When Yang's motions finally ceased, she said, "She's right, though, kitten. We need to get going pretty soon." Blake didn't seem to notice the name she had been given, instead surprised by Yang knowing that she was awake without having to look at her.

With the knowledge that Yang wasn't going to continue scratching her ears, Blake allowed herself to awaken fully. What she found as she regained her senses was that she had been leaning against the front of Yang's shoulder. Furthermore, she realized that Yang's arm was wrapped around her shoulders. Realizing this, Blake sat up, abashed and blushing as Yang's arm came back to its owner. "Sorry," was all the groggy voice of Blake could say.

"Don't worry about it." Yang yawned. "I'm still a little tired too after my own nap." She smiled warmly at Blake, not budging from her seat even with her previous statement that they had to move. Suddenly, she adopted a weak toothy grin impaired by her own fatigue. "So, how'd you sleep?"

This brought Blake back into reality and, in effect, allowed her to rebuke something that she had put off temporarily. "Don't call me 'kitten'," was her tired reply.

Yang's toothy, impish grin transitioned back to her regular smile. "Sorry." A few long, comfortable moments of silence lingered between the two. Blake realized that the entire cabin was empty except for them. She looked to the blonde sitting next to her and inadvertently saw the day showing the faintest signs of succumbing to the impending dusk. "So," Yang said, breaking the silence, "you ready to go?"

"Yeah," Blake yawned as she stood up. She found her balance to be slightly off, but she attributed this to the fact that she had slept for six hours in a moving airship. Yang stood up, showing signs of thrown-off balance as well. However, she wasn't able to regain her balance as quickly as Blake had and resorted to stumbling over to the Faunus and throwing an arm over her shoulder for support. Blake returned in kind—after all, what were partners for? Blake smirked, silently surprised at her ability to awaken so quickly and somewhat delighted by the fact that it was Yang who required a shoulder to lean on now. "Come on, let's get going. I don't think Weiss will be able to wait much longer."

Yang copied the gesture, donning a smirk of her own. "Let the princess wait." Blake simply rolled her eyes and proceeded to walk out of the airship, supporting Yang as she went.

When Blake left for Beacon, she boarded her airship on a dock-like area, much akin to the one that Beacon utilized. This outdoor dock was what Blake expected to see when she stepped off of the airship. What she found instead was an enclosed passenger boarding bridge. From this tunnel, Blake could speculate that the door at the other end would lead into an airport.

She was proven correct, but was unable to take pride in the fact. There were two factors working against Blake at the time. The first was her enhanced hearing caused by her Faunus ears. What she hadn't expected was the innumerable mass of people that swarmed the area around the terminal. The multitude of conversations, arguments, and screeching announcements over the various intercoms put a strain on Blake's ability to hear. The second factor was her social anxiety. The sheer number of people that amassed in the hoard sent shivers down her spine at the thought that any one of them would want to either engage in conversation or remark on her Faunus heritage, hidden though it was. Much worse, she knew that if she was going to get out of the airport, she was going to have to walk through the crowd, unintentionally interacting with a great many of them as she brushed by.

The combined effects of these factors brought back the uneasiness that Blake had when she awoke back on the airship. Yang, who was apparently able to stand on her own now, tightened her grip around Blake when she felt the Faunus tense and waver. To a human, all that could be heard in the area was an annoyingly loud droning that would persist throughout the entire airport. For the young Faunus, all she could hear was a deafening cacophony that caused her to wince and shut her eyes.

Despite the discord, Blake was able to faintly hear the distant yell that could only belong to Ruby. "Yang! Blake!" If Blake was to look up from her stare trained at the floor, she would have seen a hand repeatedly bouncing above the crowd ahead, before ducking back into a height-disadvantaged obscurity. While Blake could hear Ruby calling for them, she couldn't move on her own—that was what Yang was for.

She could feel Yang pulling her along. As she looked up, Blake saw the impending crowd coming closer. She instinctively leaned into the only person she was comfortable being this close to. In turn, Yang pulled her partner closer, making it so that the two would take up as little space as possible when maneuvering through the crowd. While Blake did blush at her actions, she preferred this position over the alternative of trudging through that crowd on her own. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds of the crowd around her, focusing only on the warm figure that held onto her protectively.

When she next opened her eyes, she found that the crowd was behind them and that the noise had seemed to die down a little. It was still loud, but it was tolerable for the Faunus. Blake saw Weiss standing with her arms still crossed, glaring at both her and Yang. Ruby looked as though she wanted to say something or squeal at something she found adorable. Unfortunately for Ruby, Weiss spoke up first. "Took you two long enough."

The remark and glare made Blake conscious of the fact that she was still clinging to Yang, causing her to quickly separate herself from her partner. She noticed that both of their faces were flushed from embarrassment and for some odd reason, seeing Yang that way made Blake feel as though a smile was coming on. She suppressed this feeling however, and turned her attention to the heiress. "Well, we're here. Now what?" Her tone was devoid of any trace of embarrassment or annoyance; this was caused by her genuine curiosity and her excitement.

Still audibly annoyed, Weiss said, "Now we go find our luggage. That is, if it hasn't been stolen after waiting so long." She didn't wait for any sort of response before she marched off in the direction Blake could only assume was baggage claim. Ruby followed close behind, not missing a beat.

Blake felt an elbow nudge her from the side. She saw Yang smirking. "She's just excited is all," she stated. She seemed confident in her assumption.

"Yeah," Blake sighed. She agreed with Yang's assumption on the matter, but Weiss' negativity was not at fault for Blake's outwards appearance of forlornness. Visions of the trek through the crowd filled Blake's mind. She saw throngs of humans descending upon her with intent to harm. She saw how everyone in the crowd gave her judgmental looks, silently reprimanding her for being born a Faunus. She knew that none of this was real, but she liked to believe, especially when she saw her golden savior rescue her from those who would harm her. She could fight for herself, but backup was a welcome change of pace. Unlike the backup she had grown to know, she knew that her golden savior would not betray her.

Suddenly, Yang spoke up, more cheery and excitable than usual. "C'mon! The faster we get our stuff, the faster we can get home!" She then took Blake's hand, effectively pulling the Faunus from her thoughts, and dragged her along towards baggage claim. Blake guessed that it was in poor form for a person to run in an airport, which was why she believed Yang's gait was as fast as one could walk without the motion being considered a jog.

As Yang led, Blake donned a wry grin and asked "Are you sure that _we_ are going home?" The emphasis on the plurality in the statement only proved to thicken the mocking, albeit lighthearted, sarcasm.

Yang looked back and winked, an equally playful grin attached to her. "Yep! They say home is where the heart is."

Whether or not Yang intended this previous statement to be any more than friendly or not remained to be seen. However, for the time being, Blake took the statement as having more-than-friendly implications and blushed accordingly. She had doubts that Yang would say such a thing for the rationalized reason; the amount of times Blake had seen Yang staring at those of the opposite gender gave Blake credible reason to believe Yang would never flirt with her with serious intent.

The rest of the walk went on in silence. At least, there was silence between the two of them; the airport, on the other hand, was still as boisterous and lively as ever. This must have been the reason why Yang was so unaffected by the crowds and noises. When they arrived at baggage claim, Blake found that the only people still waiting were Weiss and Ruby. Beside them was what looked to be an empty cart intended for carrying luggage. Ruby waved them over.

"Still not out?" Yang asked, looking towards the baggage carousel.

"Nope," Ruby replied, "Everybody else's stuff came out faster. Maybe those butlers put our stuff on the wrong airship."

"Absolutely not," Weiss stated firmly. To accentuate her defiance, Weiss stomped one foot. "First of all, they are not butlers; they are porters. Second, a porter hired by the Schnee family would never make a mistake such as loading our luggage on a different flight." As if on cue, six pure-white suitcases came out from behind a black curtain onto the conveyor belt. "See? What did I say?" Following Weiss' suitcases were both of Ruby's maroon cases, Yang's over-exerted black case, and Blake's brown case.

When Blake went to pick up her luggage, she was surprised to find that the latch had been fixed. She had been prepared for everything to fall out, but was relieved when nothing did. She felt as though she had underestimated the porters when they said that they were prepared. As she turned back around to look at the others, she found that all six of Weiss' cases were piled neatly into the cart with one maroon case sitting at the top. Weiss did not seem annoyed by this extra suitcase as she cleaned whatever dust that was on her hands with a handkerchief. Meanwhile, Ruby rocked back and forth on her feet, hugging what Blake assumed to be Crescent Rose, still in its case. Now it was Weiss' turn to ask, "Now what?"

Yang walked up next to Blake, having no trouble carrying her own suitcase in one hand. "Now we hail a cab." Blake watched the blonde smirk at Weiss' subtle signs of disgust. "It'll be fine, Weiss. It's just a taxi." While she didn't relent on the look of disgust, Weiss did roll her eyes in a manner that didn't come across as demeaning.

Before Blake could offer assistance, Yang had disappeared from her vision. Instead, she looked to Weiss, who shrugged, before marching on. With her teammates in tow, Blake followed the directions given by the signs above that would lead her to an exit. She didn't know which exit would be the right one as Yang had not specified, so she could only hope she found the correct exit.

Eventually, the group of three arrived at a rather large foyer of sorts. Light from outside streamed in through the many windows that made up the walls of this area and reflected off of the shined granite flooring. The sight would have been exquisite, had the light not been shining on a sight that made Blake shudder. Yet another crowd stood in the way of Blake and her goal. The only difference in this encounter, and the one that would secretly burden Blake the most, was the lack of Yang. This would mean that Blake would have to go through this crowd all by herself and face her fears without any help.

She stepped forward hesitantly; however, she only took one step before she froze. Internally, she was berating herself. She was a competent warrior—she had no fears on the battlefield. She shouldn't have been freezing up at something so benign as an impatient, judgmental, solid mass of humanity. Movement in her peripheral caught her attention. She saw Ruby pushing the cart of luggage through the crowd, effectively making a path as Weiss followed along, carrying a single maroon case. Blake took the opportunity and followed close behind.

The berth that the cart created was more than enough for Blake to breathe easy—rather, easier. As they blazed a trail through the wilderness of humanity, Blake could see in the distance what looked to be a door that was bathed in the light from outside. With eyes trained on the door and nothing else, the journey through the crowd was made a much simpler process.

It felt as though no time had passed in Blake's mind between the moment she chose to follow the cart and the moment she was outside. In contrast to the morning's feeling of humidity coupled with the incessant heat, the air now was cool and comfortable, a first sign that the day was coming to a close. The first thing Blake saw was the faded blue sky above. It seemed as though it was willingly submitting to the whims of the oncoming night and only emphasized this point by slowly fading even further as time progressed. A cool breeze drifted by and cooled the young Faunus, causing her raven hair to sway in the wind as it brought with it the distinct saline scent of a nearby ocean. The general level of ambient conversation was not only tolerable to Blake's ears, it was relaxing; it created a form of white noise that would tone out whatever worries she might have had before.

A shrill whistle was heard off to the side. The group turned their heads to find Yang waving at them a short distance away, standing by a large, black taxi van. She didn't have her suitcase in her hands, so Blake guessed that the van would be their mode of transportation for the evening. If it wasn't evident enough as to what her intent was, she called out to the others. "Hey guys! I found our ride!"

Weiss groaned in perceptible annoyance at the outburst. Blake merely smiled and followed as Ruby pushed the cart towards her sister.

Yang jogged up to the cart and relieved Ruby from pushing the cart. "You and Weiss take a seat," she said. "Me and Blake will load up the van." Blake did not object to her being volunteered. After all, she was the only one left carrying anything that wasn't meant to be kept within arm's reach at all times.

Ruby nodded once and headed over to Weiss. She proceeded to take the heiress by the wrist and pulled her towards the van. The sound of the van's door opening followed by its closing signified that the two had found their seats. Blake thought that the scene might have looked cute if the wrist that Ruby took had not been the one that had a hand attached to Crescent Rose's case.

Yang pushed the cart over to the sidewalk adjacent to the van and stopped. As Blake caught up, Yang had already opened the back doors and had begun piling the luggage inside. Blake had to wonder why Yang had volunteered her; she looked like she could handle the entire process herself. Her question never was answered even when Yang asked Blake for her bag. It was placed in the back with all the others, the doors were shut, and Yang returned the cart. Meanwhile, Blake was left standing there, ruminating on her own question.

She never got to finish her thoughts as she found an arm wrapped around her shoulder as Yang ushered her along. "C'mon," the blonde said, "we've got a long ride ahead of us." Blake groaned; she hadn't heard this information before. Yang laughed. "It's not six hours long; it's tolerable. We'll be home before you know it." Blake didn't know if she was relieved to hear this or if she had come to terms with having to take small sacrifices in order for her own enjoyment.

As the two neared the van, Yang jumped ahead and opened the door. "After you, mademoiselle," she offered, bowing her head. Blake simply shook her head and rolled her eyes as she stepped inside the van. Due to the height, she had to remain in a sort of half-crouch as she maneuvered about. Weiss and Ruby had taken the two seats that were the furthest forward and the only ones that separated from each other. Weiss had her arms crossed in a look of frustration as Ruby caressed the case of her weapon. Blake moved to the first row of seats behind the two. As it was a bench, she chose to sit as far to the right as she could and leaned against the window.

Moments later, she heard the tell-tale sound of the van's door closing and a mane of golden hair could be seen stalking its way through the seats. Yang made her way back to the bench on which Blake sat and chose not to position herself against the opposite window, but next to Blake. She shot the girl in black a quick smile before securing her seatbelt.

Blake could barely interpret that the driver asked where the group was heading before Yang and Ruby simultaneously and incoherently shouted what must have been an address in their excitement. Blake didn't hear what they had said, but the driver apparently had as he drove forward. Blake returned to gazing out the window at the people waiting on the sidewalk that were safely separated from her by a veil of glass.

"Sorry," she heard Yang say from beside her. When she looked over, Blake found Yang looking at her with a rare sheepish look on her face. "Sorry about yelling that out loud."

Blake smiled and was about to say something appeasing until Weiss spoke up. "Yeah? Well you should be. I'm surprised I can still hear after that."

Ruby rubbed one of her ears. "She's right, Yang. I think we may have gone a little overboard with that."

Though Yang's facial expression did not change, the almost imperceptible dip in her head told Blake that her partner really did feel bad about the yell. Blake leaned over and nudged Yang with her shoulder. She spoke soft enough so that Yang would be the only one to hear what she had to say over the sounds of the van moving. "Don't worry about it. It's alright." Yang looked up to meet Blake's eyes. "You were just excited is all." Blake smirked.

Yang returned the shoulder nudge and smiled warmly. "Thanks," she said. She then made a slight motion as if she was about to move closer to Blake for some reason, but halted herself very early on in the process. She then sat up straight and looked directly forward with the slightest of blushes dusting her cheeks.

Blake did not miss that slight movement towards her. It looked to be an almost insignificant twitch, yet the action still caused Blake to question its original intent. The Faunus attempted to draw parallels between this, being volunteered to wait with Yang, and when she woke up to find Yang scratching her ears. She immediately came to a conclusion that became incapable of leaving her mind. She believed that Yang was showing affection to her with romantic intent. She knew this to be untrue as it was only an assumption created by her own yearning mind—it was a rationalization of what could never be. She barely contained a crestfallen sigh and instead chose to lean against the window and take in the sights.

During her interaction with Yang, the van had found its way onto a highway which it was currently coasting upon. Blake had the choice of either looking directly ahead to the road in front of them with its repetitive, uninteresting sights or out of her window and into the horizon and at the various suburbs and commercial areas that were just outside of downtown Vale. She couldn't bring herself to look at the other window even if it might possibly show downtown Vale in all its glory—she couldn't bring herself to look in the general direction of Yang with such false thoughts running through her mind.

She chose to watch the horizon. The hazy blue that was once a vibrant cyan now tinted on its edges with a warm and energetic orange. Already, she could see the distant light show composed of red and white lights of cars as the vehicles drove down the various roads and streets, preparing for the impending darkness. When she pressed the back of her hand against the window, she found the glass to be cooler than expected; a sure sign that night was coming. Distracting herself from her thoughts of fictional romance, Blake watched the horizon and continued to press the side of her hand against the window, waiting for a further shift in color and a change in temperature.

It took about an hour for any change to occur pertaining to the direction of the van. They had stayed on the highway for this duration and were now turning off on an exit ramp. While the highway that they were being chauffeured on would later be described as being built around the perimeter of downtown, Blake was nonetheless surprised that after an hour of driving, they had still not left the influence of the capital. Every building where they were currently looked about the same as those they saw and hour ago. Even after all of those nights comprised of her staring at this city, only now could Blake truly appreciate the size of it.

Blake was surprised to have not heard any grumblings from Weiss thus far. She reasoned that this patience in a situation with minimal information given beforehand was due to her informative teammate. She reasoned that Weiss was only able to stay calm because Ruby possibly told her how long travel would take in total. This could have been something Blake would have brought up with her partner had she not been too flustered by her own thoughts to do anything of the sort.

As the van drove down the exit, Blake was able to see more closely the sights the city had to offer. The exit led to a road that was marked as a highway. However, it was not a highway in the traditional sense, since it had commercial buildings and promenades lining either side of it. There were names of restaurants and stores that she had only heard of from prior praise that she could now see on this side street of the capital city. People strolled down the promenades so wrapped up in their own conversations that they paid no heed to the traffic that sped by them. There were neighbors in adjacent townhouses conversing with each other in a most genial manner. This was everything Blake expected of the city and she hadn't even reached the heart of it yet.

Blake stared at the new scenery for what was to be a half an hour. It was at the thirty minute mark that the road marked as a highway began to shrink from a three-lane boulevard to a one-lane road. In this transition, the stores, the restaurants, and the townhouses gave way to an expanse of verdant plains. Gone were obstructions that impeded one's sight of the horizon. This new view revealed the blossoming elegance of the distant sunset. The blue that fringed the horizon gave way to a yellow warmth as the sun began to touch the distant hills that bordered Vale's city limits. As the sun dipped into eventual darkness, it intensified, casting a shadow across the land that spawned from a cloud, now grey, that passed in front of it. Blake found it odd that she could look into the sun without having to avert her gaze only a moment later, but chose not to voice her concerns. Slowly but surely, the glass of the window began to cool as the radiance of the sun diminished due to its descent. The warm sun in the distance, as far away and detached as it may have been, was able to allow Blake to forget about her assumptions of Yang's prior actions.

"Whoa," she heard Yang whisper. Blake then felt something brush up against her face and when she looked at the cause, she found Yang leaning over, placing her chin on her sleeveless shoulder as the two stared out the window. As the warmth of Yang's chin radiated throughout her, Blake realized that what had brushed against her was Yang's hair. She couldn't blush at the contact because she wasn't embarrassed by it. Yang wasn't flirting or insinuating anything, merely showing unadulterated emotion and awe at the sight of the sunset. Blake smiled and watched the sunset with her partner's head in her peripheral. She knew that while Yang couldn't reciprocate the sentiments, she could accept this as an affectionate occurrence while it was probably intended only to be a comfortable action between friends. With the touch of the cold glass replaced with Yang's warmth, Blake dreamily stared off into the distance, losing track of time to the feeling of correctness this instance gave her.

Before she knew it, the van turned one final corner and the view of the sunset was gone, hidden by the wall of luggage that made up the back of the van. This caused Yang to sit back in her seat with an odd smirk on her face. Blake intended on trying to figure out the cause of the smirk until she looked directly ahead of the van.

A rather large, one-story ranch house stood in the center of an expanse of grassy field, marred only in its bucolic serenity by the earthen driveway leading up to it from the road prior. Blake was surprised at the sight set before her. In a word, Blake expected the sisters' house to be humble, seeing as how the two were consistently resourceful and chose not to waste any resources in a situation where they could potentially be utilized. However, the house that stood before her was large and secluded, something she did not expect from her extroverted partner.

The van slowed to a halt before the house. Then the driver turned to state the cost of the trip. Before anyone could object to her doing so, Weiss handed the man a bundle of Lien from seemingly out of nowhere. It was then that Weiss quickly opened the door and in came the fresh air of the expansive area. One by one, the group exited the van to stand before the house on the dirt road. Day had become dusk, leaving what was left of the light of day to linger on the horizon. It was against the darkness of the sky that the home was silhouetted.

"Home sweet home," Yang stated airily.

She was then nudged by Ruby's elbow. "Not yet, Yang," she chided with a smile. Yang merely rolled her eyes and moved to the back of the van to open its doors. To make the trip easier on themselves by avoiding too many trips back to the van, each member of the team carried more than one case. Ruby carried both of her cases, Weiss carried two of her own cases, Blake had her own and one of Weiss', and Yang carried two of Weiss' along with her own bloated suitcase.

Ruby led the team up the wooden steps of the house with an established ease that could only be attributed to a person who had lived in this very building for years. Yang and Ruby were the first to reach the door, leaving Blake and Weiss to slowly stride up the stairs into this home that was not their own. Blake, with her calm and cool demeanor, and Weiss, who did everything confidently and with practiced grace, were both reduced to awkward teenagers who acted like they had never encountered a situation like this before. It is to be said that Blake truly had not experienced a situation such as this; she did not know if the same could be said for Weiss. Admittedly, this was Blake's first time being a guest in someone else's house in a situation that did not involve White Fang operations.

When Yang and Ruby reached the door, they proceeded to set their cases on the wooden porch before separating into two separate actions. Ruby ran back to the van and grabbed Weiss' remaining suitcase while Yang fished for something in the many pockets of her jacket.

Blake and Weiss arrived at the same time at the top of the steps and stood around awkwardly, shifting the weight of their suitcases from one side to the other as they waited. Then, at the same time as well, Ruby bolted up the steps and sidestepped Weiss as she went to retrieve Crescent Rose while Yang pulled out a key from one of her pockets. Yang unlocked the door, but did not open it just yet. She looked to Ruby who permitted, "Now you can say it."

With Ruby's authorization given, Yang flung the door open, yelling "Home! Sweet home!" Neither Ruby nor Blake could suppress a laugh at the antics. Despite the cliché, there was a certain sincerity about the way she had shouted it.

Ruby followed Yang in and immediately placed the two suitcases she carried on the ground beside the door. "Well?" She looked to the two stragglers. "Come on in!"

Nervously, the two stepped inside, Blake allowing Weiss to go first since the invitation seemed to have been directed at her. The trepidation seemed to disappear as Blake stepped across the threshold. She stood in what would be considered to be a living room that exuded an unfounded, unfamiliar warmth. She searched for the source of it but only saw an unlit fireplace on an opposite wall and a thermostat that seemed to be turned off. She reasoned that it could have been her partner not being in control of her aura output, but she could tell when the heat was Yang's and when it was not. This was not Yang's doing. This warmth was familiar, somehow, and yet completely foreign and indescribable to the young Faunus. This house exuded this odd smell—not one that was necessarily displeasing but one that was peculiar and foreign. She couldn't put her finger on it, the only word coming to mind being "dusty," but that was probably due to the fact that the house had gone unoccupied for nine months.

As Weiss entered the house, Ruby walked back out to retrieve her other bag. Yang, meanwhile, approached Blake and Weiss. "Okay," she started, clapping her hands together, "First things first. We'll get you set up in your rooms and then we'll show you around and figure out what to eat. Does that sound alright?" This elicited a nod from Blake and a "Sure" from Weiss.

Yang picked up four of Weiss' bags by herself and began walking through the house. Both Weiss and Blake took the nonverbal cue to follow. Ruby eventually caught up to the group, carrying her own bags. To either side, portals could be seen leading to different rooms of which Blake could not see the significance of. While the house had been surprisingly clean, there were signs that the two energetic sisters had at one point lived here. There were barely noticeable stains on the carpet beneath that looked to have come from mud being carried in on one of their boots. Blake made it a point to avoid this stain and saw that neither sister bothered to take off their shoes when entering—comparatively odd for how she was raised. Nonetheless, she examined the rest of the house, finding the smallest scratches on walls to the singular light bulb that didn't work to be curious. The group turned down a corridor that led from the living room and were faced with a hall that was lined with doors.

Yang stopped walking after the first door and whirled around to face the group of her travel-weary teammates. "Alright," she started. "This room right here," she patted the door's frame for emphasis, "is Ruby's room. As you can guess, Ruby will be sleeping here. This is where we might have a problem though." She looked at both Blake and Weiss, seemingly watching them for any signs of distress. Blake was confident that whatever problem arose, it would be able to be handled and she was sure Weiss felt the same way. Taking the hint that her audience was listening, Yang continued. "Our problem is with sleeping arrangements. There are three bedrooms here and there are four of us. I have my own room and there is a guest room down the hall. On top of that," she chuckled once, "Ruby's bed is a bunk bed."

With an exasperated expression, Weiss looked to Ruby. "Of course you have a bunk bed." Ruby laughed nervously.

"Anyways," said Yang, diverting the attention back to her. She looked between Blake and Weiss. "Both of you can share the guest room if you want, but it only has one bed. Or, if you want to, one of you can bunk with Ruby."

With the ultimatum out in the open, Blake and Weiss were left to make a decision. This came in the form of the two conversing through body language alone, as not to accidentally offend their hosts with one or both of them rejecting the invitation to room with Ruby.

Blake cocked her head to the side, letting Weiss have the first say.

Weiss lifted one eyebrow to return the offer.

Blake shrugged her shoulders.

Weiss gave a questioning gaze. She darted her eyes between Blake and Ruby. After a moment to separate one item in her list, she darted her eyes between Blake and the floor nearest her own feet.

Blake shrugged.

Weiss sighed. It was not a sigh of defeat, but whatever it was for Blake could not tell. "Fine," Weiss said, "I'll room with Ruby."

"Woohoo!" Ruby cheered. She then moved past Weiss and Blake to get to the door. She entered and put her belongings down before motioning Weiss to follow. Weiss did so and Yang entered briefly to set Weiss' cases down. "This is going to be great. You can have the bottom bunk—I sleep up top anyways. It'll be just like Beacon. Oh and if you—"

Yang closed the door on the two, effectively muting the conversation. Blake was surprised to have not heard a single groan come from Weiss as Ruby chattered away in her excitement. Yang looked surprised as well. "Huh," she said, "We might just see Weiss smile for once."

Blake assumed that the reason why this statement could possibly be true was due in large part to Weiss' growing acceptance of Ruby over the past year. Blake even believed that this acceptance bordered on affection and over-protection at times. Still, the blonde had thrown her for a few too many loops today, so she had to ask, "Why's that?"

"Oh, you know." She winked. "You just have a hard time believing it is all." She turned on her heel and continued down the hallway. "I never would have figured them for couple material, but what do you know?" She stopped before the next door and turned back to Blake. "They just look snow cute together."

"Really?" Blake asked exasperatedly. What she got was a smirk in response. It took her a second to get over the pun. "I don't think they're even together, anyways."

"Yet," Yang corrected. "They aren't together _yet_. They will be. We'll just have to help them out a little is all."

"You'd really do that to your own sister?"

"Of course! What kind of big sister would I be if I didn't tease my sister? The worst kind, that's what." She had a confident smirk plastered to her face that told Blake that she was serious in her intentions, but didn't mean any harm by them.

"You're incorrigible," Blake said, rolling her eyes and smirking.

"You know it," Yang returned. "Anyways," she drawled, "this'll be your room." She opened the door and turned on the lights. "There's a closet on the far wall, a dresser in the corner, and night stands on either side of the bed where you can keep your books." The grin showed that the blonde was pleased with herself the last item on the list. "Bathroom's across from Weiss and Ruby's room and my room's across the way."

Blake stepped in the room and took a look around. The room was spacious, more so than what she had seen of Ruby's room. Against the back wall of the room stood a bed with simple white sheets and pillows. She felt that the room would probably fit Weiss better with her apparent affinity for the color, but she wasn't going to complain. It was immaculate—seemingly untouched by previous ownership and the only room in the house devoid of any telling characteristics of who owned the house. She turned to look at Yang.

"We'll all get settled in then we'll see what we want to do for dinner." She paused for a moment, looking as though she was going to say something. She shook her head and said, "I'll be in my room if you need anything." At this, she left, leaving Blake without the opportunity to reply.

With Yang gone, Blake's world became noticeably darker and colder. Silence and solitude had once been desired by the girl, but that was before she had grown accustomed to the eclectic group that was her team. Now without the company of her companion, Blake found herself in a sickeningly quiet and alien environment. The room was too clean, too devoid of any personality that it felt wrong, sterile. She had to break the silence. She took her suitcase, laid it on the bed, and unlatched it in one fluid motion. On top of her belongings rested Gambol Shroud. Blake sat on the bed and held the weapon, looking it over for any flaws. She knew there wouldn't be any—there never were. She just needed something to occupy her time.

She went through the process of checking to make sure that the gun was unloaded, the blades were still sharp, and the ribbon lacked any tears. She found that everything was in optimal condition and placed the weapon on top of a nightstand with a few magazines of ammunition sitting close by on the off chance that she would need them.

With her weapon taken care of, Blake could focus her efforts on unpacking her belongings into the room she would call her own for the next three months. During the many trips to and from the dresser and the closet, Blake found just enough motivation to distract herself from the loneliness that plagued her. Her thoughts immediately drifted to finding reasons for Yang's actions earlier in the day. The actions of the morning and the seemingly inadvertent flirting that occurred therein could be written off on the point that that was Yang's usual chipper, if not intrusive, self. The events after the morning, however, were a different story.

The recurring theme in the actions of Yang on this day had been to get the two of them away from everyone else. Blake knew this, but did not know why—she had an idea which she believed to be wrong, but she did not know for sure. She began dissecting the instance involving Yang rushing off to the airship to the both of them. She knew that Yang was energetic and generally over-enthusiastic, but willing to go the extra mile for something so trivial she was not. Another point in this action which piqued Blake's interest was the fact that Yang had only pulled her along, not Ruby or Weiss. If what she said about the two being a potential couple and her wanting to tease them for it was true, then this action could be attributed to her wanting to let the two spend time together.

However, it seemed to Blake that Yang did not intend on giving the other partnership some time alone, as evidenced by the out-of-character silence exhibited as soon as they were seated. The stark contrast between the energy displayed in her dragging Blake along and the adamant resignation to do nothing struck Blake as odd. The usually loquacious girl had not uttered a word until she had confided in Blake her reasons for inviting her. It was in this instance that Yang had truly not been her usual self. For that moment, she had been unguarded and utterly sincere. This and the physical contact made Blake reason that Yang accepted her as an invaluable friend.

There were more instances in which Blake had to weigh her logic against, knowing that her initial assumption would not be true unless it was tested thoroughly. She then began to reminisce upon the events at the end of the airship ride. The chief difference in Yang's behavior was that—much like when she had confided in her partner—she was particularly calm and not brash. She had kept her voice down with the knowledge that Blake had been in a state of consciousness that only just bordered on asleep and stayed that way even when Weiss spoke at her regular volume. Blake understood that the two had a mutual respect for each other as both fighters and people, but this sensitivity showed a certain value that Yang had attached to Blake.

On top of this were the circumstances as to how Blake awoke from her nap. When she first became aware of her surroundings, she had found that not only had she been unconsciously leaning against Yang for the hours prior, she had found that Yang had been gently scratching her Faunus ears. Before, Yang would only make the occasional cat joke or pun, always causing the subject of these remarks to attempt to curb them from happening any further. The jokes and puns, while they were not intended to be taunting, were a tolerable nuisance that Blake thought would lessen over time. The scratching of her ears set itself apart from the jokes in that it was an act that showed a gentile caring from Yang that starkly contrasted the mischievous attempt by the blonde earlier that morning. Blake reasoned that the blonde would never show this caring, unguarded, un-Yang attitude to Weiss or even Ruby judging by her airing of grievances to her about her sister when the subject of the statements was not present. Perhaps Yang thought this to be a weakness with her having to always play the part of the older sister, but Blake assumed from this a corollary: Because Yang valued Blake as such a dear friend, she found that Blake could act as sole confidante within Team RWBY for her own needs.

The next trip back to the suitcase caused Blake to realize that she had nothing left to put away. Her clothes had been stored, her books had been placed in the nightstand, and Gambol Shroud was placed within arm's reach on top of the nightstand. With nothing else to do, she closed her suitcase and slid it underneath the bed. With one situation left to ponder over, Blake sat down on the bed and eased herself up against the pillows and the headboard.

The final instance remembered was that of the ride to the house—the reasons why this action was of significant were twofold. The first reason was that Yang chose to sit close to Blake when she had the opportunity to sit on the opposite side of the bench. This played into the "valued friend' concept and potentially the idea that she was a confidante, but neither of these explained the action next.

When Yang had rested her chin on Blake's shoulder, it was as though nothing else mattered in the world to the young Faunus. The contact—as surprising as it initially was—allowed Blake to be distracted from the confusion over Yang's earlier actions. It showed a certain tranquility about Yang that had seldom been seen before. Furthermore, it showed Blake that the blonde was not opposed to physical contact that would give off a more-than-friendly implication. In fact, it gave Blake reason to believe that her partner valued her as more than a friend. The Faunus tried to get as far away from the notion that Yang had romantic intent, straining to rationalize the affections of those of a best friend. But try as she might, Blake could not avoid the new idea that had formed in her mind.

For the sake of logic, she decided to test this conclusion against the previous situations. Would Yang pulling her off to the airship to spend a few extra minutes alone be considered a romantic action? Possibly—the fact that Yang seemed flustered when she chose not to speak only helped this point. The defiance to speak could have proved that the emotion Blake assumed to have detected was, in fact, Yang being flustered. Blake had not done anything to incite a negative reaction as far as she knew, so she had reason to believe that this state was caused by Yang's own logic interfering with her desired actions.

Was Yang's careful attention given to Blake after her nap a sign of affection? It looked to be the case, given the fact that she seemed to know that the Faunus was enjoying the motions and chose not to relent. The abnormal gentleness of voice also showed a certain favor given to Blake that would not be shown even to her own sister. Finally, the ability she showed in knowing that Blake was awake without having to look at her showed a familiarity between the two of them. In Blake's mind, these answers culminated into the decision that Yang was holding some sort of romantic intentions but she was not letting them known—not consciously anyways.

Blake sighed, shifting her position on the bed so that she was lying down. She gazed into the light above, wondering what she would do with this new information. She could wait around and hope Yang would reveal her intentions first—Blake was patient, waiting would not be a problem.

There was a knock at the door. "Blake?" It was the voice of Yang. "Blake, are you set up in there?" This interruption was a pleasant surprise. It allowed her to distract herself from making a decision concerning a relationship. It also gave her another opportunity to observe Yang for more evidence.

"Yeah, I'll be right out," she called back. She lifted herself from the bed and took a second to made sure there was nothing left out that she needed to put away. Satisfied that there was nothing left, she went to open the door.

She expected to find Yang waiting an appropriate distance from the door, respecting the space required to not startle someone. What she found instead was Yang leaning against the door frame by her elbow and dressed in the pajamas that she had brought with her to Beacon. It seemed as though Yang was trying to strike some sort of flirtatious pose. It would have worked if she was able to suppress the fact that she was on the verge of laughing hysterically. This latter description was to be expected coming from Yang. Nonetheless, Blake was startled. Due to the practiced stoicism on Blake's part, she was unable to gasp or yelp in a way that some of her other teammates would. Instead, her reaction was to take a step back from the door, ball her hands into fists, and, unintentionally, cause her eyes to go wide, assessing the situation as best she could. This response broke the barriers that had restrained Yang's laughter.

Through her laughs, Yang was able to gasp, "You should have seen the look on your face!" She was then interrupted by another fit of laughter. It took a small while, but once she reached a certain level of composure, she gasped again. "You-you totally are a cat! Your bow even flattened, you were so scared!"

Blake paid no mind to the returning laughter due to her sudden awareness of her Faunus traits that remained hidden inside of the bow. She blushed at her own subconscious actions. The blush did not spawn from Yang realizing that her ears gave away emotion—she had become comfortable with her team knowing about her heritage. The blush arose due to them being a source which Yang could draw inspiration from so that she could divert the intended conversation in a way that made Blake forget about her previous, troublesome thoughts—it would have been charming had Yang not been teasing her.

She waited until Yang was able to fully recompose herself before she would attempt to say anything. "I'm sorry, Blake. That was rude of me. It was just…It was so unexpected." It took a while, but Yang was soon able to take a few breaths without being subject to fits of giggling.

Blake felt the need to quip, "You can say that again," but chose instead to sigh, clearing her mind of the incident. "It's alright. I wasn't expecting you to be that close is all." She could see the beginnings of a smile pull at the corners of Yang's lips. "Anyways," she began again, wanting to refocus the conversation towards its original intent, "do you have an idea about what we're going to do for dinner?"

"Yep," she chirped. Followed by this was a purposefully irritating silence that was only halted with the inquisitive raise of one of Blake's eyebrows. "Ruby and Weiss are already asleep," she said. Somehow, Blake was not surprised by this information—it had been a long day and the two had been incredibly patient compared to her and Yang. "I was thinking that we'd order pizza and watch a movie or something."

"Sure," Blake replied. "Pizza will work." Truthfully, the prospect of food that did not come from Beacon's cafeteria sounded absolutely wonderful. She was sure Weiss would have objected, but because she was apparently asleep, she couldn't make her opposition known.

Yang beamed. "Alright. I'm gonna go order the pizza while you change into something comfortable." She paused for a moment. "Then meet me in the living room. We'll get the movie set up while we wait. Sound good?" Blake nodded, prompting Yang to turn down the hallway, assumingly heading to order the food. Blake closed the door and smiled. Even if the girl was excitable even by simple things like ordering a pizza and watching a movie, she was still able to make Blake smile with the unadulterated geniality of her actions. Perhaps this led Blake to accept the proposition without question.

Blake located her pajamas and proceeded to change into them. She tried to remember the last time she watched a movie and found that there was only one instance in the past year. During one night of her first year, the school faculty decided for one reason or another that a movie night was required to boost morale during one of the three-day weekends associated with some nationally recognized holiday. She had been goaded into attending by Ruby on the grounds that it was intended to act as a "team-building exercise." She found that she enjoyed the movie, if only for the company near her. She still preferred the written word, but she found in this occurrence a reason why she could distract herself from her novels.

She had changed and now walked down the hall towards the living room. As she passed what she believed to be Ruby's room, she was met with silence, notifying her that Yang's observations had been astute. She crept by the room, taking care to not unintentionally wake either of the room's occupants and unsure of her memory of the tour not thirty minutes prior.

As she entered the living room, she found Yang hanging up a stationary telephone, presumably already having ordered the food. "TV room's this way," she called. Instead of pointing and indicating a direction, she walked out of Blake's sight and into a different room. Blake followed blindly, hoping that she would find the right way without having Yang to guide her. She wanted to learn the layout of the house so that she could eventually navigate it as easily as she had navigated the halls of Beacon by the end of the year.

The layout of the house proved to not be daunting in the least. She easily found the room Yang had moved to. What she was faced with was a monolith of a television screen and a row of leather chairs. Judging by the curvature of the furniture focused on the screen and the numerous cup holders located on the armrests, Blake assumed that this was the home theatre Yang had often boasted about. Yang had her attention directed to a shelf. Even with her attention diverted, she was still somehow able to detect Blake's presence. She didn't turn to look at Blake as she spoke. "Take a seat. Just picking out a movie."

Blake abided and walked around the set of chairs. It looked to be able to fit four people comfortably with two chairs outer separated by armrests on the inside and two joined into a form of loveseat due to the lack of armrest between them. She saw this loveseat as an opportunity for additional observation on Yang's behavior towards her and thusly sat on one side of it. By the time Yang chose and inserted a movie, Blake had realized that there had been a blanket lying in the chair next to her. She saw this as yet another opportunity and laid the blanket across her legs as she waited for Yang to choose her seat.

Predictably, Yang fell backwards into the seat beside Blake, grinning all the while at her self-amusing antics. She had a remote control in her hand and deftly changed the inputs on the television before navigating the menu of the movie. Yang told her about the movie, stating that it was just a "dumb comedy" and that it would be a good way to relax after a day of travel. Then she took the blanket from Blake and placed it over the both of them before reaching between her seat's cushion and the armrest for something. As she pulled her arm back up, the lower portion of her seat became a leg rest—the seats doubled as recliners. Blake felt for a mechanism on her side and pulled as soon as she found it. This could turn out to be not only an enriching experience, but a relaxing one as well.

The film began and Blake found herself settling into the new warmth exuded by Yang that intensified inside the confides of the shared blanket. Blake saw this as only a simple act of friendship due to Yang not getting close enough for the distance to be considered more than friendly. They simply sat beside each other with no present trace of displayed affection shown between the two of them.

As the movie progressed, Blake found it frustrating how little Yang attempted to show any sort of interest. Her attention had been focused solely on the film, laughing at any joke that was told and every humorous action that was done. To an extent, Blake found the lack of conversation between the two to be disconcerting. She had been expecting some sort of information to be gathered in this instance. She realized from the way Yang had immersed herself into the movie that she would probably not collect any sort of new evidence.

It is not to say that Blake was not enjoying herself—this would be far from the truth. She found herself laughing at a few of the jokes, if only to laugh alongside Yang. With this shared laughter, Blake also found herself attempting to fend off the urge to evoke a response from her partner. She found herself wanting to move closer to Yang, to rest her head against the blonde's shoulder, and to have Yang reciprocate the sentiments. She pushed these thoughts from her mind. They were too forward for the normally reserved girl and they went against her attempts at subtle observation.

Her thoughts halted with the ringing of a doorbell. Yang paused the movie and shot up from the couch, leaving Blake to subconsciously hold the blanket closer to herself. She looked over the couch to see her partner walking towards the door in the adjacent room.

The event that followed was one of extreme relevance to Blake's investigation of Yang and one that would not have been able to be witnessed had Blake's hearing not been above average.

She heard the door open and felt the air pressure lower slightly as the outside air intermingled with the interior of the house. It was then that she heard a distinctly male voice say, "Well, hello there." The tone in which he spoke caused Blake to feel concerned for Yang. The guy sounded overtly sleazy and at least marginally interested in Yang. She didn't need to observe him to infer this.

"Hi!" Yang flippantly replied. She didn't seem fazed by the interest shown by the newcomer.

"I've got a pizza for a Ms. Schnee." Blake had to suppress her laughter. With this second instance of the male speaking, Blake could assume from his voice that he was around her and Yang's age.

"Yup! That's me!"

"Might I say what a lovely name that is for such a lovely lady." Blake couldn't hear any argument coming from Yang. Instead, she felt an odd sense of jealousy well up inside her. She knew it was odd, as this was only a transaction between the two, but she still felt a foreboding dread that Yang might be taken away from her before the two could have actually become a couple—of course, that wouldn't happen anyways as the thought of Yang even accepting the offer of a relationship in the first place seemed ludicrous.

Her mind was put at ease slightly with Yang's reply. "And might I say what a lovely pizza that looks like." Blake could only imagine Yang's eyes trained on the box that the boy held, not meeting his gaze in his desperate search for conversation.

"But of course!" She could tell that he was forcing this bombast, trying so hard to get the attention of her partner. "Such a quality product is handcrafted only for the most quality of customers such as yourself." He paused. He then looked over to where Blake was, somehow noticing her despite the distance imposed by the hallway. "And your sister," he continued and finished with a wink.

Blake had to ask herself if a person could really be this imperceptive. Not only had he not known the Schnee family name, he had assumed that the black-haired, amber-eyed Faunus was a relative of Yang's. The latter suggestion didn't seem too outrageous (sans the part about Blake being a Faunus) seeing as how Yang is the biological sister of Ruby and how physically different the two of them are. Either way, the guy didn't seem to have any sort of tact as evidenced by his attempts at flirting with both girls at the same time.

Blake noticed Yang shift so that the man's view of her was obstructed. She could faintly see the blonde's hair sparking every few seconds. Her voice shifted to a less-than-diplomatic tone. "How much for the pizza?"

He progressed unfazed. "Well for you—" He was cut off.

"How much?"

He stuttered, now fazed. "T-Twenty Lien."

Blake could only see Yang snatch the pizza from his arm and forcefully place what she assumed to be the amount due. He sounded as though he was about to say something but was unable to with Yang slamming the door in his face. Yang whirled around with a radiant smile on her face. "Sit tight, Blake," she called, nothing in her voice indicating annoyance, "I'll bring you back some."

Blake sat back down and clutched at the blanket. Why was it that she felt annoyed when some guy she didn't know flirted with her, but absolutely flustered whenever Yang did it? She attributed it to her crush on the girl but questioned whether or not it was a simple crush. The word "crush" held connotations that made the affections seem unserious and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. She believed that the word might not have appropriately described what she was feeling for Yang. However, it was late and she was hungry; she could hold off on finding a fitting word for now.

Yang returned with a paper plate in each hand. Before she returned to her seat, she handed Blake her plate and napkin, eliciting a "Thank you" from the raven-haired girl. Yang didn't bother putting the blanket back on as she resumed the film and began to eat.

Blake's eyes had been trained on Yang the entire time. When she finally looked at her food she groaned; it seemed to be another one of Yang's jokes. "Really?" she asked.

"What?" Yang followed Blake's gaze to the food on her plate. On it was one slice of cheese pizza, a safe bet for anyone with tastes unknown to the one ordering, and the other had anchovies. "Oh," she said sheepishly. "I didn't mean it as a joke, I promise. I just thought that because you like fish so much, you'd like anchovies as well."

The apologetic grin on Yang's face ceased Blake's look of annoyance. "You're lucky you were right," was all she said before taking a bite of the pizza. Yang looked positively thrilled at the acceptance and returned her gaze to the movie.

* * *

The majority of the movie went on in relative peace. Yang had gone back for more food while Blake was content with the one plate that she was given. Overt romantic instances were nonexistent for this time; the two had their attention on the film which gradually became funnier to the point where Yang was in tears from laughing and Blake was able to laugh freely without feeling the necessity to suppress it. One other action that Blake could not suppress was that of a yawn. The day had been long on her despite her six-hour nap and only now, in this period of peace and stability, could Blake fully realize her fatigue.

Moving her eyes became an action of immeasurable difficulty, causing her to be unable to roll her eyes at whatever jokes Yang told and making it so that she had to turn her head to look at the blonde girl rather than glance at her out of the corner of her eye. In her tired state, common sense and stealth tactics were forgone, allowing Blake to gaze longingly at her partner. However, her practiced stoicism presented itself in disguising this pining look as one of extreme tiredness.

From time to time, Yang would look over at the barely conscious girl and smile warmly. Blake, still consciously aware of her surroundings would take this opportunity to gaze into the lilac eyes of the girl beside her, to watch the caring, happy expression of her partner, and to bask in the warmth that radiated from Yang.

She looked ahead, attempting to return her attention to the television. She found her gaze incidentally fixed on the clock of some sort of box that had been a part of the stand underneath the television. The time was exactly 11:00 p.m.

Be it her delirium spurred by her exhaustion or her subconscious acting out its whims in her weakened state, Blake found herself wanting more of the warmth. Her eyelids drooped piteously. She wanted to keep watching the movie—to keep laughing with Yang. At the same time, she wanted nothing more than to sleep now that she found the warmth beside her to be preferable over the blanket draped over her lap.

After all of the travelling, the waiting, and the questioning of what was and what could be, Blake found herself unable to keep her eyes open any longer. She faintly felt herself losing her balance and falling to her left. She fell only upon what she believed to be the shoulder of that warm figure beside her and knew that this wasn't a bad thing. As she drifted off to sleep, she could feel the warmth noticeably swell.

* * *

If you've made it this far into the story, I thank you dearly. I doubt I will make a chapter of this length for _Valence_ again because although I said in the author's note at the beginning of the chapter that I was against segmenting my chapters, I understand that 20,000-word chapters are a pain to read even in multiple sittings. However, this chapter that transitioned from Beacon Academy to the main setting of the rest of the story required a longer chapter. I can only hope that my personal enjoyment of this chapter is not based in delusions spawning from my looking at the same file for about three weeks. Maybe it is terrible and I am loony after all, but I thought it was good and was able to learn some things from the process of writing it.

One other thing before I my next update in a week: I created a Tumblr profile where updates on this story's progress can be found and where one might choose to leave a question/comment anonymously or otherwise. A link can be found near the top of my Fanfiction profile.

Once again, I'd like to thank you for reading this. My goal with _Valence_ is not fame or praise but to entertain. If I am able to entertain just one person, then I have succeeded. The response shown in chapter one blew that "just one person" idea out of the water. Thank you.

Stay safe and stay tuned.


	3. Chapter 3: Bumblebee

Welcome back. I would like to thank everyone who viewed, reviewed, followed, favorited, or any other resulting action of a click of the mouse. I would also like to thank those of you who read through the leviathan of a second chapter. I'm going to keep this author's note as brief as relatively possible, but first I would like to make two things apparent that I haven't already. These are things that I should have said earlier, but because of my aversion to potentially spoiling anything, I couldn't bring myself to do so. Thankfully, two reviews inquired about two separate subjects. What I mean to discuss are the expected length of _Valence _and the main relationships shown in the story. I go into a little more technical depth in a review I made to directly answer the questions if you want to find a little more supplementary information.

The first item on the list deals with how many chapters there will be and an estimate of when I want to be finished. As the skeletonized plot currently stands, I expect chapters to number between twenty and twenty-five, with the story's word count finishing somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000. The word count is an estimate, though the chapter numbers are almost concrete. I wish to have this story completed before RTX 2014 (By July 4th.). My reasons for this are twofold: 1. RWBY Volume 2 premiers at RTX and there is a distinct possibility that some part of my story will come into conflict with introduced canon. 2. I am attending the convention and do not wish to have my mind completely focused on writing for three whole days when I could be enjoying Austin. That, and if I am able to attend the RWBY panel this year (Last year, every panel for RWBY had a line that was absolutely huge by the time I had the chance to enter the queue.), I don't want to have a panic attack in the midst of a crowd of about 5,000 over a small nuance that I might feel the need to rewrite the story around.

The second item on the list pertains to which relationships are showcased; specifically, which relationships will receive the most screen time. The relationship between Blake and Yang will be the primary focus of this novel since the story is told from a third-person limited point of view based around Blake's perspective. It is not to say that the relationship between Ruby and Weiss will be downplayed into obscurity. They will receive their time in the limelight and are integral to the progression of the plot, but are secondary to Blake and Yang's relationship. Yet, I am having an amazingly fun time writing their blossoming relationship from a passive, dismissive, and somewhat subtle manner. The time spent away from Ruby and Weiss, I feel, makes the reader able to rationalize a number of possible occurrences between the two that furthers their relationship without my intervention.

If there is anything else anybody would like to know about the story like the two items I listed, feel free to send me a private message, ask in a review, or ask on my Tumblr. Though, if the questions asked in the review section either have answers that other readers would want to know or are asked by anonymous reviewers, they will be answered on my Tumblr. Otherwise, I will answer with a private message as soon as I can. This is so that I do not bog down the reviews with my own answers and in effect, increase the number of shown reviews for the story.

I believe that is all I need to say in this author's note. Ladies and gentlemen, chapter three of _Valence_.

* * *

Chapter 3: Bumblebee

As an aside to the reader, it is to be noted that although the point of view thus far has been focused on Blake Belladonna's thoughts and perspective, not all information pertaining to her psyche has been supplied. This is due in part to Blake's level of social prowess and aversion to conversational topics on the subject of her emotions and opinions on presented situations. It is not to say that she is socially inept by any means. What is intended to be said is that Blake, as confident as she was in her hypothetical ability to control a conversation, was but an introvert by all definitions of the word. To voice her opinion would be forced, to go out of her way to appease someone else would be a foreign concept, and to speak of her desires would be an act so blasphemous to her own doctrine of stoicism and composure that it often made her blush. Pride made her believe that she had been able to stray far away from her self-imposed isolationist personality. While it is true that she was more willing to join in on her team's activities, she was still not able to express her thoughts or emotions on the subject.

The point of this aside is not to describe how Blake Belladonna's personality truly was. Expressly, this aside is meant to show why the young Faunus could not accept her affections of Yang nor could she accept the fact that Yang held these affections as well. It is to be stated that Blake held a definite emotional attachment to Yang that was well within the bounds of being romantic. Concurrently, Yang held similar hidden sentiments—however, for the sake of perspective, the explicit details of her affection shall not be divulged at this juncture.

Blake believed that she had been investigating Yang the night prior, and while it was true that she observed and analyzed her partner, her own emotions got in the way of reaching a final verdict as to why Yang had acted the way she did. It was not her own adoration that caused this discrepancy, but her indignant attitude about believing that Yang could feel the same way. The conclusion she came to would eventually be correct, but until then, her investigation was proven ineffectual.

In summary, though Blake may seem to be a calm, cool, collected, and ever-calculative individual, when it came to social situations—especially those involving Yang—she was reduced to a shy, timid girl who was too afraid of rejection to even consider confessing her feelings. Blake's decision to contrast this idea was one that would both cause a great deal of stress on her ability to logically reason and would lead her to a new stage of her life—one that should begin where the story last departed.

Through the translucent white curtains did a single beam of sunlight pass through in order to land upon Blake's closed eyes. The seemingly insignificant occurrence proved able to rouse the girl from her slumber. Unfortunately, the lethargy attributed to summer break had finally descended upon Blake, causing her to lazily sprawl her limbs about in a form of horizontal stretch atop the pillowy mattress and beneath the cool sheets.

Instantly, Blake was awake and confused. She had fallen asleep on a couch with no mattress and no cool sheets. Furthermore, she faintly remembered Yang being present as well. It took a moment for her to remember that not only had Yang been there, but that she had fallen asleep on the blonde girl's shoulder. She would have blushed at the memory if the immediate situation had not been so alarming. Her eyes darted across her surroundings before she let out a sigh of relief.

She found herself in her own bedroom. How she got here from the couch, she did not know—she could guess that Yang had something to do with it, but there was no evidence that could prove this point. No matter how it had happened, it did not change the fact that she was in an unfamiliar house and was placed in a room she did not yet completely know the location of within the building's layout. In a word, it was a jarring awakening. Using her arms as leverage, she propped herself up to a sitting position. In the mid-morning light, the white linens of the bedding and the beige tone of the walls could be described as pure and verging on sterility. She rubbed her eyes. Despite the serenity of the situation, she was still tired and found it hard to see in the overexposed luminescence of the room.

It felt odd to her, not having to wake up before dawn or to be woken up by the antics of her teammates. This morning's silence was strangely disconcerting and foreign. Without her team present, she found herself able to slowly awaken rather than have to be immediately cognizant of everything around her. She thought about going back to sleep, but let this idea go. She figured that it wasn't too late in the morning, but it was still past the regular time she would have woken up at Beacon.

Reluctantly, Blake decided to begin her day instead of sleeping in. She arose and as she walked to the closet to change into her regular attire, she remembered the night before fondly. Though her personality at the time was a far cry from her usual self, she found that she didn't mind this. With this more open persona, she was more attuned to Yang's personality. This uncharacteristic amiability was showcased during their impromptu decision to watch a movie the night prior. She couldn't remember the plot of the film whatsoever; all she could remember was the time she spent laughing whole-heartedly alongside Yang. The feeling of absolute comfort that she found sitting next to Yang as they shared in their mirth still lingered in Blake's mind. She desired more of the feeling—more of Yang—and this desire was overpowering.

She was confident now, energetic due to the lack of delirium normally attributed to exhaustion. With this confidence, she made a decision—a decision that would shape her life from that point on. With this confidence and renewed vigor, Blake made the decision that on this day, she would attempt to tell Yang how she felt.

How she planned on doing this was still yet to be planned, but the sentiments existed nonetheless. Blake was admittedly scared of the idea of confessing to her partner—mortified even by the possibility of ruining not just their partnership, but the entire team's dynamic as well. Still, she would find a way. This was the sort of conviction she had when she chose to first enter the White Fang and the level of confidence she felt when she chose to leave. Unlike her joining of the organization, she felt that this decision would prove to be a more stable choice in that it would not cause the defamation of an entire race of people.

By the time she was fully dressed, she was completely confident in the idea she had formed. She knew that now would be as good a time as any to speak to Yang about this. Because it was summer break, there would be minimal repercussions in regards to their combined combat abilities should Yang not reciprocate the sentiments. It could be reasoned that the rejection might cause a rift in their friendship, but even this could not deter Blake from pursuing her goal.

What could deter Blake from pursuing her goal, however, was the lack of planning involved as to how she was going to accomplish it. This indecision found Blake standing awkwardly in the center of her room, her mind so preoccupied that she couldn't decide whether to sit down or head out into the hallway. All she could think about was how she planned on talking to Yang. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of anything past getting Yang away from the other two members of the team. She mentally berated herself for not being able to make any sort of plan even after reading the multitude of romance novels she had amassed over the years.

Invite her to dinner? Technically, they had already done that. Get coffee together? The idea could have worked if Blake wasn't inclined towards tea instead. Picnic by a lake? Now Blake knew that she was running out of ideas.

She sighed dejectedly. Had Blake Belladonna met her match? Had she finally found the one wall that she could not scale with neither her skill in combat nor her intelligence? For the briefest of moments, she thought it so, but banished the idea as quickly as it had snaked its way into her mind. She reasoned that she could not make a plan because she was too anxious about the ramifications of Yang possibly not accepting her affections. The strife was all caused by the numerous variables pertaining to objectively trivial ideas such as timing, intentions, and a fitting locale, all of which had strained her mind.

It was the following confidence that so finely walked the border associated with overconfidence that allowed Blake to devise a plan. Alone in her room, with no other individuals to measure what her own response would be, Blake felt that what was necessary was a simple solution. She decided that she would see where the day took her and would improvise along the way. Her confidence in her social ability was the only thing keeping her from giving up on the idea and going back to sleep.

With confidence in both her goal and her plan, Blake stepped out into the hallway. The first thing that she saw was that Yang's door was open slightly—a sign that Yang was not there. Blake found herself clenching and unclenching her hands, now anxiously balled into fists from the possibility of almost having contact with Yang. She could only just see into the room, but chose not to as to not invade her partner's privacy. She did, however, manage to see something that was miniscule in importance, yet turned out to be relatively surprising. She saw that Yang's bedding was, like her own, white rather than the expected yellow. Perhaps she was erroneously stereotyping Yang for liking the color yellow on everything she owned.

She shook her head before refocusing her sights on the end of the hallway. She exited into the living room but did not stop there. Upon her arrival in the room, she heard voices coming from her left, from a separate room that was apparently prone to slight reverberation. Though she was unsure of where she was going specifically, the competence allowed by subconscious memories of the house's layout made it fairly simple to find the source of the sound. Following the noise, she entered a room that looked to be a kitchen as evidenced by the gleaming granite countertops and stainless steel fridge within immediate view. The sources of the voices could be seen sitting at an island in the center of the kitchen, eating what had been the pizza Yang had ordered the night prior.

It was a calming sight to see Ruby and Weiss conversing peacefully. Blake knew that the two got along as friends even before she began seeing the minutest signs of romantic tensions arise between the two, so to see them having a dialogue that did not involve Ruby becoming overenthusiastic or Weiss scolding the younger girl was a welcome sight. They were both still dressed in their pajamas, further contributing to the feeling of casualness that the two created. Still, Weiss looked to be exceptionally aware of her posture and mannerisms. She seemed just about as used to the house as Blake was.

As Blake made her way into the kitchen, she was greeted with a cheery "Morning!" from Ruby and a rare, genial "Good morning, Blake," from Weiss. Ruby's reaction was to be expected, but Weiss'? Normally, a silent greeting of implied respect was the only form of reception Blake received from the heiress. She accepted the greeting nonetheless and wrote it off as Weiss now having the ability to unleash all of the excitement she had had pent up for the past few months. Perhaps "unleash" is not the correct term due to the fact that the heiress still struggled to retain her regal composure despite the futility of the action.

Blake walked over to the island and found a stack of paper plates beside the box of pizza. As she did not intend to intrude and invade the sisters' refrigerator, Blake resigned to having last night's dinner for breakfast like the other girls had. As she took her single slice, Ruby asked, "How'd you sleep, Blake?"

It seemed to be an innocent enough question, yet it caused Blake to hesitate for an invisibly short period of time. Some irrational part of her mind was telling her that Ruby knew how she had fallen asleep last night. This thought, however, was silenced by the logical part of her mind which caused her to reply. She automatically said, "Quite well, actually. How about yourselves?"

"I slept great!" Ruby exclaimed. "It feels good to be back home." Blake noticed Weiss not becoming the least bit bothered by Ruby's outcry.

"I could actually sleep for once. Having a bunk bed that isn't supported by ropes made it somewhat easier to do so." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly at Weiss' confession. "I could get used to sleeping without constantly fearing for my life." She shot a rare teasing smirk at Ruby. Now Blake was sure that Weiss was legitimately happy for being able to relax. The action was so uncharacteristic and thusly disconcerting; yet, overall, Blake couldn't find a reason to complain for Weiss' show of emotion.

Blake had not noticed how hungry she had apparently been until she found that the one slice of pizza that she had was gone. She hadn't realized that she had eaten it while Ruby and Weiss were talking. The two had returned to their regular conversation, the topic of which Blake could not attempt to guess. Her mind was preoccupied once again with the thought of having to interact with Yang soon. The pizza had only acted as a distraction so that she could prolong the inevitable. Now that her distraction was gone, she knew that she could no longer wait. She adopted the same stoic look of aloofness that she strived to achieve at all times before she spoke. "Do either of you know where Yang is?" She thought that she heard a hitch in her voice as she asked it, but this only occurred in her mind.

"Yeah, she should be in the garage," Ruby said before returning to her incomprehensible conversation with her partner. Blake stood in place, confused as to where the garage would be. Ruby had answered as though the location of the garage was common sense. After a pause lasting only a few seconds, Ruby looked back to Blake. "It's down the hall over there." She pointed to a hallway attached to the kitchen, separate to the one leading from the living room to the bedrooms. "You'll know the door when you see it."

Blake nodded in gratitude, avoiding speaking as to not interrupt the heated conversation already taking place any more than she had. She followed the hallway as directed, but felt her willingness to continue walking wane as anxiety waxed. Although she couldn't see the door, she knew that it was there and the closer she got to it, the more she questioned her actions. She was unmistakably attracted to Yang, both physically and emotionally; but at the same time, she doubted Yang felt the same way about her. Why would she? Blake knew that she could be distant and even accidentally rude at times and that Yang had openly flirted with members of the opposite gender—sometimes within her view! Her confidence that Yang reciprocated her affections quickly devolved into knowledge of the potential futility of her impending admission. The thought of rejection made her want to sprint back to her bed, duck under the covers, and wake up in August when school was set to begin again.

She knew that this fear was childish and that it shouldn't impede the plan that she had already made. She walked only a few more feet before she saw the door she knew would lead to the garage. Whereas the other doors in the house were relatively light in their construction of wood, this door was visibly heavy and made from some sort of metal. Blake had to take a breath to calm herself as she looked at this imposing, final obstacle. Beyond this door was Yang and either the greatest decision she had ever made or the most soul-crushing choice she could have impulsively rationalized.

It was worth the risk. She placed her hand on the cold metal of the doorknob, turned, and pulled.

The sight she was met with when she first entered the garage was one that did not contain Yang. Instead, there was an object in the room that was doubtlessly something of Yang's, proving the apparent stereotypes Blake had created for the girl. Something so brash and powerful-looking and, at the same time, so yellow could only be something that belonged to the blonde brawler. It looked to be a motorcycle and as such, it was an unexpected—yet somehow fitting—sight in the house of the sisters.

What was even more unexpected was the mane of golden hair led by the signature tuft that would never stay down rising from the other side of that beast of a motorcycle. Blake froze at the sight. She immediately knew who it was. She suddenly became scared for her irrational reason and became incredibly jumpy and opposite her regular, aloof demeanor. What Blake saw in the blonde sight was someone who could harshly reject her, forgetting that she could also accept her wholeheartedly. In the sight, she saw something now unachievable. Fortunately, the Faunus' apprehensive flight could never be, due to both her stubborn pride in her made decision and the fact that her partner began to speak.

"Hey, Blake!" the figure standing on the opposite side of the bike greeted. "How'd you sleep?" Unlike her sister, Yang knew how Blake had fallen asleep the night before, thus making the question all the more knowing and pointed. She stood up from whatever she had been doing to greet Blake. She had been dressed in her regular attire sans jacket, leaving her in her yellow tank top and signature orange scarf—the reason for the inclusion of this latter item, Blake could not fathom. The jacket was present, though only in its position resting haphazardly upon a table that stood against the back wall.

The young Faunus found herself scratching the inside of her finger with her thumb as she thought of an answer. "I slept well," she said. In this reply, she attempted to call upon all the literary knowledge she had amassed over the years in order to create an undertone of gratitude and implications of happiness. Unfortunately, while she felt as though she was successful in this endeavor, in actuality, Yang did not perceive Blake's intentions, resulting in a noncommittal hum.

The silence was grating to Blake. She had intended to talk to Yang, not to stand around and watch the blonde work on her motorcycle. Hesitantly, unsurely, Blake stepped forward into the garage and found the clicks of her heeled boots against the concrete deafening. She stood before the piece of machinery, admiring it absentmindedly. She didn't know what any of the parts did, but the way they were arranged and crafted looked impressive.

"You like what you see?" Blake was jolted from her admiration by Yang's less-than-subtle double entendre. She looked up to see Yang with a warm, distracted smile on her face that made her seem as though she had already dismissed her own joke. "Made her all by myself. You wouldn't believe the acceleration on her—there's nothing on the road that can match her." Pride was practically radiating from the exuberant youth.

Blake raised her eyebrow. "You made this?"

"Yup!" Yang chirped. "I took what I learned from making Ember Celica and thought, 'Weapons are nice and all, but what I really need is a super-cool Yang-mobile.' And so I made this!" She spread her arms, showcasing the efforts of her labor. "She's pretty awesome, right?"

Indeed, the object in question was at least intriguing to Blake. Still, something about Yang's description of the bike made her ask, "She?"

"Of course it's a she! You can't make something yourself and not have a name for it." Just like her sister, Yang was idealistic to the point where it made Blake smile slightly. It made sense, somewhat, that one would create his or her weapon and name it however he or she liked. Since the process had become standard among Hunters and Huntresses, the same process could be applied to making a vehicle when applying the same skills.

Yang let the silence following the statement linger, creating a lack of closure that Blake wished to remedy. "What's her name?"

Yang grinned. "Bumblebee," was all she said.

Blake took this information in and attempted to dissect its meaning. Perhaps she meant that the bike can only figuratively fly because of its strength. Perhaps it alluded to the idea that its rider could figuratively sting. Blake partially even assumed, if only facetiously, that it was about Yang's general color scheme being yellow while her own being black. To humor the blonde and to satisfy her own curiosity, Blake had to ask, "Why 'Bumblebee'?"

The response that Blake received was initially anticlimactic. Yang merely shrugged, saying "I don't know. I thought of the name while we were at Beacon and decided on calling her Bumblebee since then."

Suddenly, Blake's internal humor became a very real possibility. It was this very real possibility that brought her confidence back to some degree. She couldn't help but smirk slightly as Yang got back to work. She saw that her partner no longer seemed to be an entity that was associated with possible rejection. Instead, she became another person: a real entity with similar emotions that was both understanding and kind. She saw now that she could attempt her goals and possibly achieve them as well. This was all caused by Yang getting inspiration during a period of time when they were a team at the academy. She had been ready to speak, however, Yang spoke first. "Hey, Blake," she began, "you wanna come with me to test her out?"

Sufficiently caught off guard with the interrupting speech, all Blake could utter was a rare and unintelligent, "Huh?" It is not to say that she had not comprehended what Yang had asked; rather, she was unsure if Yang was serious about the invitation.

Yang stood up and wiped her hands on a cloth she apparently already had behind her. "Do you want to come with me to test out Bumblebee?" she asked again. "I haven't been able to ride her since I got to Beacon, so I thought it'd be a good idea to test her out." She paused, seemingly gauging Blake's contemplative expression. "C'mon," she pleaded, "It'll be fun. Just the two of us!"

The last few words seemed to click in Blake's mind. It was what she wanted, wasn't it—to get Yang alone and to tell her everything? She didn't put much deliberation into the subject before she found herself replying, "Sure. Sounds like fun." Neither was able to suppress a grin.

"Alright then." Yang said this in such an enthusiastic, sunny way that Blake couldn't help but be affected by the words. The blonde walked over to the table against the back wall and put on her jacket before heading over to what looked to be a locker at the end of the table. The next thing Blake knew, a black helmet was flying through the air towards her. She was able to catch it just as Yang asked a question. "Let's go now. Is there anything you need to get before we leave?"

"Just a second. Let me get Gambol—"

"Alright then!" Yang repeated, cutting Blake off. Before the Faunus could object, she found Yang grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her over to the bike. "You won't need your weapon where we're going." The blonde pulled her sunglasses out of her jacket and simultaneously put them on along with her own yellow helmet.

As Yang detached from her partner and lowered herself onto the bike, Blake found herself subconsciously moving closer at an incredibly trepid rate. "Well?" she heard Yang ask. "Put on your helmet and c'mon!" Despite the helmet and sunglasses that obscured her lilac eyes, Blake still felt a welcoming glow come from her smile. Blake managed to put on the helmet, having to make her ears flush against her head underneath her bow. It was a tight fit, but she knew that the strain on her head was well worth the eventual end that was to be reached. She timidly climbed onto the back of the bike. As she had never ridden on a motorcycle—or any form of two-wheel transportation for that matter—her knowledge as to what she needed to do was limited to what she had read in her novels. She thought it would eventually become tolerable, but as it was, she was uncomfortable with the lack of control she had sitting on the back of it. Yang looked over her shoulder. "Relax," she said. "You're alright. Just make sure you're on the seat and put your arms around me. You'll be fine." She gave a comforting smile.

Blake could not stop the fact that her face flushed at the words. Yang was asking her to initiate physical contact—an unprecedented and otherwise objectionable thought. Despite the flustered state of mind that Blake found herself in, she lowered herself onto the bike behind Yang as ordered. What came next was a prime example of how affections made Blake revert to a timid, young girl. She cautiously, hesitantly, so slowly that it felt like hours for the action to finally be completed, wrapped her arms around Yang's waist.

It took a moment for Blake to interpret the sensation she felt on her arm—the one that she did not wear a sleeve on. The position that her arms were in put her forearm up against Yang's exposed midriff. Blake would have recoiled, but due to the necessity of holding on and the enjoyable feeling of closeness that it gave her, she could not let go. She was glad that Yang could not see her face turn a violent shade of scarlet as she subconsciously buried her face into the blonde's hair. Only the new scent of lavender alerted Blake to her action causing her to freeze, not being able to blush any harder or become any more flustered.

"Are you ready?" she heard Yang call back.

Blake couldn't bring herself to speak so she decided to convey her consent through a nod of her head that she hoped her partner could feel.

"Alright." At this, Bumblebee came alive, roaring as Yang revved the engine. The bike shook as the engine awakened, causing Blake's grip on her partner to tighten slightly. Yang looked back at Blake—or at least attempted to, finding that Blake couldn't be seen with her head in the mane of blonde hair. "Hey," she called over the engine, "there's nothing to worry about. Everything's going to be just fine."

Blake had to ask herself if Yang thought that she was afraid. This idea could have been taken from the lack of conversation and abundance of trepidation leading up to the bike being turned on. However, Blake took this comforting as more of a preemptive consolation when she heard the low metallic screeching of the garage door lifting. She was able to lift her face out of Yang's hair to look at the sight ahead of her. Daylight crept in slowly at first, but flooded the room as the metal obstacle rose. The light was initially blinding due to Blake having woken up not a half an hour before, but she could eventually see the dirt road that she assumed all four of them had ridden on to get to the house the day prior.

"I'll take it slow at first," Yang said. "I'll bring her up to full speed when you're ready." She looked back to Blake. "All set?"

All Blake could manage was a feeble "Yeah." Unfortunately, she had only registered the question of "All set?" The statement that the bike would be brought up to "full speed" had not been heard by the Faunus.

The bike slowly eased itself out of the garage and onto the dirt road. Blake couldn't help but bury her face once again into Yang's back despite the bike not exerting any force on its own. Yang was merely walking the bike out and still Blake found herself petrified. The Faunus found this fear irrational, as she had been comfortable with high speeds and complementary balance in the past. This, for some reason, was different and it thusly scared her.

There was a pause when the motorcycle reached the road. Blake guessed that it was for Yang to check on her again if the slight rotation of her vertebrae and shoulders proved evident. After the pause, she felt the bike slowly lurch forward and Yang pull her legs up. Blake did the same and held on tighter to Yang's midriff. She could feel her partner's back shake from a giggle caused by the gesture. Bumblebee began to move.

As Yang had said, the motorcycle had awesome acceleration. In this cause, "awesome" can be used in both the modern and traditional senses. The motorcycle moved slowly at first, easing its way down the dirt road and onto concrete. Yang gradually brought it up to speed limit. Blake had not been too keen on the idea of the two-wheeled machine at first, but came to accept it as a harmless technology as harmless as she had originally thought it was. She became comfortable with the speed as the ride progressed, due in large to the comforting figure that she could grip onto.

While she was no longer scared, she couldn't bring herself to remove her face from Yang's hair. The situation was just too perfect for her. Thanks to Bumblebee, she didn't have to feel abashed for the feelings that she harbored and could blame whatever physical contact that occurred between the two of them on her "holding on for dear life" while she was positive that she wouldn't fall off if she hadn't been doing so. She could openly hold the object of her one-sided affections as the wind rushed past the both of them, causing their hair to be blown back and their respective scarves to whip around erratically.

As the bike began to break the speed limit, Blake felt absolutely at ease. She knew that her partner would never do anything to harm her. The speed could not hinder the focus Blake had on the girl in front of her. She was ready now—ready to speak to Yang about that potentially life-changing decision whenever an opportune moment arose. She could not speak yet, lest she interrupt the serenity of the moment in the midst of the chaotic world around them. Neither person nor Grimm could deter the unadulterated feeling of jubilation felt by the normally reserved girl. Everything was right in the world and it was all thanks to the figure she wrapped her arms around, whether she knew it or not.

Unbeknownst to the Faunus, Yang held a knowing, excited smirk on her countenance as she gradually brought her motorcycle up to full speed and past the speed limit. This was not intended to be a simple "test drive" as she had previously explained. Rather, this was to be an outing—the first of many if the two of them were in agreement.

* * *

It felt as though only seconds had passed from Blake's perspective, while in objective reality, fifteen minutes had gone by. So entranced in the hold had Blake been that she was only concerned about her surroundings when she felt the bike slow and eventually come to a complete stop. Not even the high speeds at which the two travelled could have distracted Blake from the one in front of her.

When she was finally distracted and when she realized that the bike had come to a halt, a blush formed once again at the thought of Yang remarking about her overzealous hold. However, she found that Yang did not remark, but instead took off her helmet and shook her hair free as she removed her sunglasses. Blake removed herself from Yang's tresses and took her own helmet off. Her ears—and consequently, her bow—sprang up after being confined inside of the shielding for so long. She forced her expression to remain flat in an attempt to conceal any traces of embarrassment caused by this attraction and to keep from drawing attention to herself. She was glad Yang hadn't seen her ears' reactions, lest she giggle at the sight.

Ahead of them was a short tree line which only just stood in the way of an expanse of grass. People inhabited this place, engaging in activities ranging from games of tag between children to pick-up sporting events between strangers. Those who were not up and about sat in the shade, enjoying each other's company as they conversed on subjects only known to the speakers. Where the girls were was a parking lot, moderately filled. Bumblebee had been parked adjacent to the grassy precipice of the park, separated on either side by at least two parking spaces. Despite the others in the area, the two were relatively alone.

It seemed as though it was a nice enough place, but it wasn't Yang's home. Blake reasoned that the "test ride" Yang had talked about was not meant to be just riding Bumblebee around and then returning home. By this point, it wasn't surprising to find that her partner had sly, ulterior motives. Still, she had to ask, "Yang, why are we here?" She wasn't as much annoyed as she was confused—she couldn't be annoyed at Yang, today especially. She wouldn't have asked if the rest of the team had come along; that would have led to an assumption that they were going to relax at the park for a day. However, because it was only her and Yang, Blake was confused.

She could see Yang take a deep breath before turning back around to her and grinning widely. "You'll see," she said before dismounting the bike, leaving Blake to realize her precarious position without forward motion. Immediately, Blake's feet went to the ground, preemptively trying to balance the bike which conceivably would have toppled over. "Need a hand?" Blake looked to Yang who now had her hand extended.

"What about the kickstand?" Blake worriedly asked, only just keeping her voice level enough that she couldn't sound scared. "Don't you need to put that down or something?"

"Please," she scoffed. "Why would I put all that effort into making this and just slap on a kick stand? She's got a gyroscope—built that too!" Yang answered. "Now, come on!" To emphasize her point, she stretched her arm out further, goading Blake into accepting it.

Rolling her eyes, Blake took Yang's hand and was helped up from the bike. As Yang had said, there must have been a gyroscope in the bike because it stood up without any visible assistance. Blake was not able to observe this for long as she realized that Yang had not relented with the grip on her hand. Blake looked to her partner, finding that she had a neutral, almost contemplative look about her. This lasted but a moment before it was masked with an exuberant grin. The blonde pulled her partner towards the park.

Blake soon found herself having to run to keep up with Yang. She was led onto a cement path that entered and then ran the perimeter of the park. Ahead was a fork in the path with one continuing on around the park's perimeter and one that seemed to have faded due to disrepair. This secondary trail could be less considered a path than an opening in a denser part of the tree line. Judging by the consistency of the wooded area, Blake was able to deduce that this was a forest that Yang was hauling her off towards. They ran off the concrete path and onto the nearly invisible dirt trail blazed by hikers of years prior.

The two ran into the forest as partners.

The lack of information divulged by her partner left Blake with questions. It was inefficient and bothersome to be pulled along with this amount knowledge, but this lack of information could be remedied. "Where are we going?" she called, feeling the need to raise her voice to overcome the running that the two were in the midst of.

"You'll see!" Yang called back. Blake resigned from questioning any further. She knew that when her partner was in a secret-keeping mood, there was nothing she could do to sway her. She could only trust in her partner that she would eventually see.

As the two ran, sunlight streamed in from the canopy above. It fell in stripes and spots, enough to make the path they ran only just visible. Shadows fell upon the scenery behind the first row of trees on either side of the partnership, leaving Blake to only gaze ahead. What she saw was a shadow that veiled the path ahead as well, consistently keeping a sizable distance away from the two as they ran. Even with her enhanced night vision, Blake's sight could not penetrate this obscurity.

Knowing that looking around wouldn't do her much good, Blake took the time to admire her partner even more than she had already. She felt that she had had enough time to do this on the bike and that even the observations then had the possibility of being intrusive, yet she couldn't help herself. The touch of Yang's hand made her feel wanted—not as a tool to be used in an organization, but as her own person. The warmth that came from the girl, despite the fingerless gloves blocking complete contact, made Blake feel safe and feel that she didn't have to watch the shadows for any signs of danger. She felt confident that if a Nevermore swooped down from out of nowhere, the two alone could slay it without having their weapons. She felt right.

She had been patient as they ran. This patience paid off when the shadow in the distance became a faint light that grew brighter as the two neared it. This light opened up into a sight that Blake knew was the secret Yang had been holding back. The two slowed to a casual stroll which eventually led to the two completely stopping.

In the middle of this unnamed, less-than-spectacular forest was a somewhat large clearing, open to the sky above, yet not subject to the brutal rays of the summer sun. In it was a glittering pond, centered in the grassy opening. Small waves rippled the surface of the otherwise pristine body, affected by the smallest breeze that perennially blew across this temperate glade. Standing before the water was a bright marble bench that remained solemn and resolute. It looked untouched and pristine—as though no life whatsoever had ever existed in this place.

Yang stepped forwards slowly, pulling Blake towards the bench. "Here we are! Just as I remembered it. Man, nothing has changed." For some reason, Blake expected a response from the place—any noise; a chirping bird or insect, perhaps—but no response was given. It was oddly peaceful here. "Well, the path is pretty much gone, but it was getting that way anyways. Other than that, I don't think anything's happened here. Who'd think that after all these years the bench would still be here?"

"Years?" Blake asked. She was surprised; Yang had acted as though it had only been months since her last time here. Her confidence in her ability to get here seemed to prove this evident, but it was only caused by lasting memories.

Blake saw on her partner's face a smile that she had never seen from the radiant girl. It was reflective, almost remorseful. "I used to come here as a kid," Blake heard her say. Yang didn't turn to look at Blake, but still pulled her slowly towards the bench. "Mom used to take Ruby and me here whenever we came to the park. She said it was because I was being too rough with the other kids, but we both knew it was because Ruby felt left out." It was confusing to the Faunus how her tone had shifted from being excited to being outright reflective and nearly remorseful. Yang turned the sad smile to look at Blake. "She never was good at meeting people."

Not knowing exactly what to do in this sort of situation, Blake tried to the best of her abilities to keep her partner's spirits high. She gave a comforting squeeze to Yang's hand. This caused Yang's smile to warm slightly. Blake moved ahead of Yang and pulled her over to the bench quicker than they had been moving. It hurt to see her this way; even if it looked to be a minor decline in enthusiasm, a regretful Yang did not sit well with her. She was supposed to be the one in the group that appeared to have nothing wrong with her past—the one who was there to keep everyone's attitudes positive. She wasn't crying, but Blake could tell that she hurting and that this pain was steadily increasing. That is why, once she sat her partner and herself down, she said, "Tell me about her."

Yang cocked her head slightly to the side. "Who? My mom?" Blake nodded. Yang looked to the ground, remorse finding its way back to her features. "She was…I don't know. She was a lot of things. Ruby looked up to her. Where do you think she got the idea of making the world a better place by being a Huntress?" Both shared a rueful smirk. "I guess I looked up to her too. She never said 'no' when somebody asked for help and she was always there when you needed her. There wasn't anybody she wasn't friends with."

Blake smiled softly, "I can see the resemblance."

Yang's smile returned. It was happy, but tears looked to be building up in the corners of her eyes. "Thanks, Blake. That really means a lot." She looked out over the pond. "I try to be like her for Ruby's sake. I think I'm doing an alright job. I mean…Ruby still misses her and I know I can't take her place, but I think it could be worse."

Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder. "Well, if it means anything, I think you're doing a good job. It's obvious she looks up to you, Yang." This caused the blonde to raise an eyebrow at her. "You should have heard her calling your name on initiation day. She was scared and all she wanted was her big sister by her side."

Yang laughed once before her lilac eyes met Blake's amber. "How'd you hear that? She landed a ways away from us."

Blake didn't feel like telling her partner that she had followed Ruby for a short while in order to gauge her combat skills—much like she had done with a great many of the initiates. Instead, she rolled her eyes upwards, directing Yang's gaze to her now twitching bow. This made Yang giggle which subsequently caused Blake to smile.

"Thanks a lot, Blake." Before she knew what was happening, Blake found a mass of yellow hair draping across her vision. Yang had rested her head on her shoulder and let out a sigh. "I mean it," she said, eyes trained on the pond. "Thank you. I try to tell myself that I'm doing a good job, but every once in a while, it feels good to hear someone say it."

Though the contact was initially jarring to the Faunus, Blake soon felt at ease with the feeling. She couldn't think of anything to say—she didn't feel the need to say anything. In a move so extroverted that not even she would have believed it to be possible, Blake placed an arm over Yang's shoulder and pulled her closer. Yang didn't recoil at the touch. On the contrary, she warmed to it and moved closer, burying the side of her head into Blake's neck as the two watched the pond glitter.

They sat in a comfortable silence for some time as they huddled together in an attempt to ward off Yang's negativity. Blake would occasionally rub Yang's arm, making sure that whatever had been troubling her was gone. Yang did not move from her position, choosing instead to remain noticeably attentive to the Faunus beside her. She radiated a warmth that compelled Blake to move closer herself. A subtle breeze wandered its way across the two forms, intermingling their hair for only a few moments. It was in this tranquility and feeling of absolute peace and perfection that Blake knew that any other moment would never suffice.

"Yang?" she asked.

"Hmm?" Blake could not only hear Yang's hummed response, but she could feel it reverberate through both of their bodies.

Blake hesitated. Yang was so calm, so relaxed. She did not want to ruin her serenity. However, she knew the time was perfect and took a deep breath before continuing. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about. You're probably going to think it's pretty moronic." She knew she was being hard on herself, but she felt that it was required to ensure that whatever happened, nothing would go wrong in the long run. Soon after, she winced at having said this, believing that it also could have skewed Yang's opinion preemptively.

Blake felt Yang shake her head, causing her golden locks to brush up against her face. "It can't be any stupider than some of the jokes I put you guys through."

She took a few seconds to compose herself. She found this process of improvisation much harder than originally planned. "Alright," she said quietly in an attempt to motivate herself. "Yang, I uhh…Ever since we met I've…No…I've had these feelings as of late and…" She was mentally berating herself. She was so flustered that she couldn't bring herself to finish a single sentence and it pained her. She prided herself on being well-read and well-spoken in times where it was necessary and yet she could not speak now, when being well spoken was utterly crucial. However, it was the immobility of her partner that gave her confidence in the belief that Yang was there for her and that she wouldn't judge—at least, she wouldn't judge too harshly. She felt that a more direct approach would be easier, more efficient, and probably less painful if it resulted in failure. "Yang," she began, but found as the subsequent sentence went on, her speech slowed and her volume lowered to the point of near inaudibility due to uncertainty. "I just wanted to know if—maybe—you would like to go out some time?" Her face flushed and her heart rate rose to respective hues and paces she had never experienced before. Still, she would remain composed. She had to, lest her efforts prove futile due to the smallest of uncertainties.

She felt Yang shake once. Her heart stopped.

"I mean—it's alright if you don't want to. It was just that I—"

She was cut off by Yang lifting her head away from her. Blake was immediately horrified at the mistake that she had made. This was Yang distancing herself—potentially out of disgust. Blake believed that she might have destroyed not only their partnership, but the entire team as well. She practically knew that she had made a mistake that cost her both her partner and a chance for a normal life. These pessimistic thoughts were halted with one look at the lilac eyes that now glistened with eager hope.

"Blake Belladonna," Yang began with a smirk, "are you asking me out?" The look in her eyes was somewhat teasing, but on the whole, she was shown to be more happy and full of life than she had been since Blake had set eyes on her.

The answer was a resounding "yes," but Blake didn't know how to react. What came out instead was a meek, "I-umm…Yes?" Her face was burning and her gaze was averted. She was prepared to weather any type of retaliation Yang could concoct to use against her but at the same time, she was having trouble restraining her excitement. She thought that there had been no hint of negativity in Yang's voice. It is to be said that she was correct in this assumption.

She was prepared for most types of retaliations, anyway. She was not prepared for Yang tackling her from the bench and onto the ground with a rib-crushingly tight hug. She didn't hug back at first, too startled to do much of anything, let alone breathe. "Sure! About time you asked!" The nonchalant phrasing of the reply was cheered so giddily that it could be neither detached nor normally characteristic of Yang.

It took a moment for Blake to register the acceptance, but when she did, she smiled widely and reciprocated the emotions shared in the hug. Excitement, jubilation, and relief were all shared through this contact, solidifying the covenant between the two to transcend what was mere friendship to a level of relationship previously unthinkable to Blake.

The two stayed lying down in the grass, arms wrapped around each other in an almost competitive attempt of who could hug the hardest for minutes that felt like blissful hours. Blake couldn't suppress the wide grin that she had and could not stop her Faunus traits from perking up. She wouldn't have tried to suppress these reactions either way. She felt that what she had here—what she had now with Yang—was everything she'd ever wanted or would ever need. Within Yang's embrace, all thoughts of her time in the White Fang vanished. In her hold, all troubles regarding her home and people were forgotten. In this moment, nothing else mattered to Blake except the girl before her who held her so tightly that she could neither breathe nor be let go. It was a safe, strong hold—one that she knew Yang would not relent from for some time.

Ever-curious and unfamiliar with even friendship outside of what she found in her team, Blake found herself asking, "Yang, what does this mean for us now?"

Yang pulled away just enough so that she could look into Blake's golden eyes. She smirked. "I think you know exactly what this means now," she said, adding at the end, "girlfriend."

Blake beamed. Feeling herself begin to tear up, she buried her face in the crook of Yang's neck so that she wouldn't be seen crying, even if it was out of joy. The unintended side effects of this action were not at all unappealing to the Faunus. As she buried her face in Yang's neck, she smelled the distinct scent of lavender—not that associated with synthetic scents, but that of the flower. She had smelled it before when she had clung to Yang on the way to the park. Now, the scent was more prevalent and less forbidden. The second side effect was that of Yang's hand reaching up and scratching her ears through her bow. She did not object whatsoever. The action elicited a low purring from Blake and caused her to only bury herself further into Yang's neck. She couldn't care about holding any sort of aloof appearance at the moment.

"You know, you've gotta take this bow off sometimes. You look better without it." Not only could she hear Yang, but she could feel her speech due to the close proximity caused by the hug.

The suggestion was sincere and constructive—something that Blake rarely heard outside of the comments she regularly heard about herself. She held Yang tighter. "I think I can make it a point to do that."

Another period of peaceful silence lingered between the two, further distancing them from reality. This silence persisted for a few minutes before Yang had to break it. "I don't want to get up, but I told Ruby that I was going for a test ride. She might be getting worried because we haven't come back yet."

"You also told me this was just going to be a test ride," Blake chided lightly.

Yang pulled away—much to Blake's chagrin—to give her an incredulous look. "And you're going to complain about it?"

Blake laughed. "Fair point."

Even with the suggestion of leaving on the minds of both girls, neither of them could be bothered to move from their embrace, as shamelessly ardent as it was. However, the will to leave grew stronger over time and forced the two to their feet. Now separated and standing, all they could bring themselves to do was stare excitedly into the other's eyes. The stare never led to anything; the two were just content to stare. The impromptu staring contest ended with Yang asking, "Ready to go?"

Blake smirked. "Does it matter if I say yes or not?"

She was answered with Yang taking her hand and intertwining their fingers. It was a foreign feeling of closeness and unadulterated affection that sent tingles down Blake's spine. It was a warm sensation; not to where it was overbearing and uncomfortable, but to where it felt right. She felt wanted—she could tell from the unwavering grip that Yang had her in that there was no possibility of letting go nor would there be logical reason to do so in the present situation. The logical part of her mind that existed outside of the haze of emotions that was caused by the touch told her that this openly excited persona was not her own. However, she went with it and accepted this as a once-in-a-lifetime demeanor which she could let herself have. She knew that this extroverted state was fleeting and would not be a normal occurrence, but she could allow herself to hold onto Yang as she was guided to the forest path.

To think that her endeavors were fruitful is still baffling to Blake. She took a chance and it paid off, and yet she still couldn't grasp the significance of this. She had an idea about the importance, but she could not wrap her mind around the fact that Yang said "Yes." She felt like hugging the blonde again—to shower her with grateful affections until they were both aware of how important this decision was. She felt like moving closer to the source of warmth beside her, but she was content to just hold onto that gloved hand and walk through the forest, unfazed by the shadows around her.

The two walked out of the forest, hand-in-hand, as a couple.

Everything in the park appeared to be more vibrant with Blake's new perspective. The leaves were greener and could be seen to shake with even the slightest of breezes. The children in the park seemed louder and full of life. The cyan sky seemed to shimmer and the sun above felt as though it had become warmer and increasingly tolerable. Blake looked to her partner-turned-girlfriend and found her to have an indomitable smile. She leaned into the blonde to get her attention.

Yang looked over and, with the same grin, asked, "You ready to go?" Blake nodded into her arm. "Alright, let's go." She paused for a moment, her grin slowly changing into a smirk. "Ruby's probably worried by now. We'll need to get back at," she paused for effect, "Blake-neck speed."

Blake groaned playfully and bumped Yang with her shoulder. "What did I get myself into?"

"A world full of puns, Blakey." Pride welled in the lavender eyes of the blonde. "A world full of puns."

Blake untangled her fingers from Yang's. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood," she teased as she mounted the bike. She felt comfortable teasing Yang back like this and found that she left Yang standing and staring at her. Blake had seated herself on the motorcycle and found the blonde still gawking at her newfound audacity as she put on her helmet. "Are you coming or not?"

Yang regained her energetic grin as she moved forward, stumbling at first, but finding her footing before reaching the bike. She vaulted onto the vehicle, shaking it as she landed. She put on her helmet and sunglasses before smiling back at Blake. "You know why I named her Bumblebee?"

Blake smiled back. "Why?" She was answered with one of Yang's signature mischievous smirks. Realization set in and Blake rolled her eyes. "You really are incorrigible."

"And you asked me out. What does that say about you?" she quipped.

"It shows that I made a smart decision." Blake then proceeded to wrap her arms around her new girlfriend and buried her face into the mane of golden hair. She failed to see the radiant smile that lingered on Yang's face as she revved the engine of the motorcycle. She walked the bike backwards, out of its parking space.

Bumblebee lurched forward, instantly reaching speeds deemed unsafe for those not on the bike, but pleasant for those who were. The two quickly reached the main roads, flying along outside of downtown Vale. Blake clung on to Yang, finding her more exhilarating than the high speeds at which they travelled. It was on this day that the secluded, reserved Blake of months prior was transformed into a more emotionally available, more trusting person who found solace in an another rather than the escapist fantasies of her novels. She had Yang to depend on now. She had the object of her affections in her grasp and she was ecstatic, more so than she had been within available memory. She held herself close to Yang, knowing that whatever path life took from this point forward, she would not be alone.

* * *

I hope that was at least somewhat admissible for the definitive beginning of their relationship. I thought it worked, but at the same time, I've seen far too many fanfictions with slow-burn relationships that culminate with the end of the story being the two "main" characters admitting their feelings. I fear that the amount of eventual relationship stories have ingrained an idea in the fanfiction community that having the actual relationship start relatively early is a bad thing. However, with the story I have planned out, the relationship is only going up from here. I should probably note that the rating of this story will remain "T" and this decision will not waver. Take that as you will with the statement that "the relationship is only going up from here."

I apologize if the initial narration in this chapter was a tad jarring or different from what is usually written in fanfiction. However, the narrator in this story has character, as shown by the number of instances where the construct has expanded upon certain words or descriptions. It is from this personality that I feel that an aside can work every once in a while. The aside also works to elaborate on aspects Blake's personality or other key motives that need expressed elaboration that would otherwise be ignored due to the perspective of the storytelling. The narrator only describes Blake's mental processes as they occur and the scene that is presented before her, so because Blake does not actively think about herself as socially awkward, the narrator would be unable to describe this in regular narration. I would not expect too many more of this sort of blatant aside. Perhaps one or two more may occur as the novel progresses, but I think any more than one or two would seem gimmicky.

I would also like to note something that could have been. In the scene in the garage before the dialogue between Blake and Yang begins, there is the phrase, "the Faunus' apprehensive flight…" In this phrase, I originally wanted to use a word that I've always desired to use but have never had the opportunity to do so. I would have liked to have used the word, "pusillanimous," but considering that the word would have caused a break in a somewhat tense scene (That word will make most look up the definition, effectively pausing the scene.), I decided against it. I'm noting this for those like me who enjoy uncommon vocabulary from time to time. The word would have fit so well and on multiple levels, yet it could not be for the sake of the story's pacing. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Once again, thank you for reading. Stay safe and stay tuned.


	4. Chapter 4: Vale

I hope everybody is having a good week. I know I have. Between finalizing a few important plot points for later in this story and generally accomplishing what I needed to and more in my personal life, I'm feeling pretty good about this week.

Onto the part of the author's note that is actually about the story its posted in. For this chapter, when I originally wrote it, I made it a point to limit the amount of text written around a line of dialogue. I felt that with a majority of the subject matter being covered in this chapter, a lighter dialogue format would work best. When having a conversation between four characters, dialogue within lengthy paragraphs can detract from the attempted tone. Plus, it was somewhat refreshing to not have to encase a statement taken at face value with rationalizations, logic, and motives. Still, it didn't seem to keep the word count down.

One final thing I'd like to note is that there is a reference in this chapter that those who have not seen anything from Rooster Teeth other than RWBY probably will not understand. Even if you do not know what it is from, you will know the where the reference is when you read it. As to avoid spoiling the chapter, I will post the source of the reference as well as where it was if anyone happened to miss it in the author's note at the end of the chapter.

I think I've gone on long enough with this author's note. Here is chapter four of _Valence_.

* * *

Chapter 4: Vale

It was surprising to Blake how little time had passed since she and Yang had departed. It was still midday and the sun hung high amidst the infrequent clouds. She found that between the high speeds of the motorcycle and the utter bliss felt by Yang's recent acceptance, time had slowed to a wonderful crawl. Perhaps it was her own perspective, but while she was with Yang, she found that minutes passed by like hours due to her desire to savor the moment and commit as much as she could to memory. When the metal door of the sisters' garage drew upwards, the sound was not as grating as it was before. More so, it had an odd feeling that made Blake think of home.

Home was a word seldom used by the Faunus. The implications of a stationary location that associated itself with a community and a family were no longer applicable to the young woman. Between the nomadic wanderings and the cell-type structure of the White Fang, Blake hadn't truly had a home since before she joined the organization. Even at Beacon, amongst trusted friends and competent allies who would readily defend her, she could not feel completely accepted and secure as one would feel in his or her own home. However, it was this house—this home of Yang and Ruby—that influenced the restoration of these long-lost sentiments.

The reason for this was not the house itself nor was it the quiet landscape surrounding it, but its occupants. The eclectic bunch that inhabited the building existed in such a chaotic balance that there was never any time for superfluous worries or uncomfortable sentiments. Between teasing remarks, minute scolding, or attempts at inspirational speeches, Blake found herself constantly surrounded by stimuli that would never make her feel like an outcast. Each of her teammates had their own quirks about them, so it was doubtless to Blake that she was in accepting company.

While the feeling of acceptance was due to Team RWBY as a whole, a large portion of this feeling was caused by Yang's particular acceptance. As the motorcycle found its way into the garage, Blake continued to hold onto the blonde. Yang had been caring enough in the past to not remark negatively on her Faunus heritage, choosing to immediately accept her for it instead. She had shown undeniable strength on the battlefield and proved to contrast Blake perfectly, creating an unstoppable force between the two of them. Moreover, Yang had gone out of her way to be kind to Blake; making her smile when she needed it most through the various jokes and puns she often made, complimenting her on her intelligence or combat style, and even going so far as to invite her into her home for the duration of their summer break.

She was shaken from these thoughts as the bike was parked and her partner stood. She reacted tightening her grip on the figure in front of her. Unfortunately, she could not stop Yang's stronger body from moving. As Yang dismounted the bike, Blake submitted to the thought that she had spent enough time clinging to her partner and that it was time to head in. With a small, sincere smile, she replicated Yang's actions by taking off her helmet and looking over at the standing sight. Her vision then drifted to the door that led to the home's interior. This raised a question. "What are we going to do about telling Ruby and Weiss?"

Yang's eyebrow piqued. "What do you mean?"

"Are we going to tell them or keep it a secret? I know it's not standard for girls to date other girls—let alone a Faunus to girl date a human—"

Yang cut her off, which was odd because she usually allowed Blake to finish her thought unless there was some sort of comedic effect to her interruption. However, there was no such humor in her tone in this interjection. "I'll take care of Ruby. Weiss'll probably figure it out on her own." She then sent a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. They won't mind. We're teammates, remember?"

Blake took a breath to calm herself. "Alright," was all she said before she dismounted the bike. As she stood, she saw Yang standing by the door, her hand on the doorknob.

"Ready?" she asked. Blake nodded and the door was opened.

Blake followed close behind as Yang entered the home. She hadn't realized how hot it had been outside until she felt the rejuvenating touch of the home's air conditioner. Now she was acutely aware of a slight sheen of sweat that had existed on both her and Yang's skin, leaving the two to have slightly glowing faces—though, this effect was not solely caused by the warm climate. They walked down the dark hallway into the kitchen. Unsurprisingly, Weiss and Ruby were not there as they had been earlier in the day. The pizza box and plates from earlier were not to be seen either, presumably disposed of in an orderly, Weiss-like fashion. The couple continued to walk through, on the hunt for their teammates. Blake quickly glanced at the clock on one of the room's appliances. It could still be considered morning, if only just.

As the two entered the living room, they found Ruby and Weiss sitting on opposite sides of a coffee table. Both were dressed in their regular attire and seemed to be ready to tackle the day ahead. Upon closer inspection, one could see that a map sat upon the table and held both of the girls' attention. It was only with Yang clearing her throat that the two were stirred from their trance.

"Hey, you're back!" Ruby observed. "How does she run?" For some reason, Blake was not at all surprised that Yang's sister knew of the "test drive" before she did.

Yang beamed. "She runs great! It's like I never even left her alone. The only thing that I might need to fix is the—" Yang stopped what she was saying to look at the subtly icy look Weiss was giving her. "Actually," she started again, "Ruby, you wanna go to the other room to talk about it? Weiss looks more bored than she usually does." Blake had to suppress a laugh. Yang could be uncharacteristically deceptive at times, as evidenced by this improvised distraction.

"Sure thing," Ruby replied and stood from her seat. She looked at Weiss sheepishly before telling her "Sorry" and following her sister.

This left Blake to seat herself where Ruby once sat, choosing a more reclined, relaxed position than the younger leader had taken on it. She gazed from afar at the map on the table. The map was of downtown Vale and had markings on it that must have come from the black marker that lay beside it. Her gaze shifted away from the diagram—not attempting to decipher it from her current distance—to the white-haired girl sitting before her. Yang was right when she said Weiss looked bored; however, there was a definite annoyed state hidden behind the uninterested visage. Weiss gazed inquisitively into Blake's eyes for a few long seconds before asking, "What were they talking about? Who is this 'she' they're referring to?"

Blake shrugged indifferently. "Yang has a motorcycle. She named it."

"Of course. She _would_ have a motorcycle." Benign sarcasm laced every syllable. She paused again, looking at Blake as though she was an object to study and analyze. "And I'm guessing you two went out?"

Even at the words "went out," Blake didn't feel the need to blush or deny the claim. Now that she and Yang were dating, the phrase was appropriate. Still, she could have her roundabout fun with the observational Weiss. "Yes," she replied, "we went out for a test drive on her motorcycle."

"Where did you two go?" This question did not contain a pause before it, making it seem relatively sudden coming from the heiress.

Once again, Blake shrugged. "Nowhere in particular."

Weiss' next response came in the form of her slightly cocking her head and giving Blake a look that silently asked, "Do you expect me to believe that?"

Blake relented, if only slightly. She didn't want the heiress to become frustrated with the game and quit before she learned about the relationship. "We went to a park."

"A park?"

"I didn't see any name on it, so I can't really say much more than that."

"I would think that you would have seen where you were headed," Weiss stated. "So, where was this park?"

"I didn't see where I was going." Blake held her calm demeanor. "It was my first time on a motorcycle and I couldn't bring myself to look at the road."

"Mm-hmm," Weiss hummed patronizingly, seemingly checking off a point in her mental check list. "And what did you do at this park? Assuming this wasn't your first time at a park and could bring yourself to look."

Blake couldn't help but smirk at Weiss' form of humor—she knew the heiress meant no harm in her remark but was obviously trying to get information out of her. Blake decided that if Weiss was going to passively try to gather this sort of information, the least she could do in return was to make it harder on the heiress. "We just walked around. Nothing much." She didn't bother lying to Weiss any longer. She knew how to make connections between pieces of information, so Blake decided on divulging only half-truths.

"Just walked around?" Weiss almost sounded incredulous. "With Yang Xiao Long?" Now she did sound incredulous.

"She can be calm sometimes," Blake defended.

"That's news to me." This then led to another investigative pause, this one longer than the last as the heiress scrutinized her raven-haired teammate. After a moment, she sat back in her seat and asked confidently, albeit hesitantly with the wording, "Are you and Yang dating?"

Blake was about to reply, but was unable to due to a sudden shower of rose petals and Ruby instantaneously appearing and crushing her in a hug. Although Blake had been seated, Ruby still found a way to restrain the Faunus in her seat as she exclaimed, "I'm so happy for you two!"

Blake could hear Weiss quietly say, "I guess that answers my question."

Wide-eyed and only slightly confused, Blake had to force herself into motion again. She patted Ruby on the back and looked over her shoulder to the figure standing in the entryway to the other room. Blake sent her a look that asked if Ruby was doing this because she had been told about their new relationship. Yang smiled back warmly and nodded slightly.

It took a minute for Ruby's hold to weaken and eventually drop from Blake. As soon as the young leader was able to contain her excitement, Weiss spoke up. "Well, I guess this means congratulations are in order for the both of you." Her speech and countenance were the epitome of cordiality, showing no emotion outside of detached commendation. Blake, being all too knowledgeable about stoicism, knew that Weiss was sincere in her compliments. "But," she started, looking pointedly at Yang, "if you turn her into another hyperactive dolt like you and your sister, then you will never hear the end of it from me."

Yang moved closer to the three and stood by the seat Blake had taken. She then put her hand on top of Blake's which had positioned itself on the chair's armrest. She smirked. "I can't make any promises."An odd jolt of what felt like electricity ran through Blake at the contact. Even if she was comfortable with the fact that she and Yang were officially together, she couldn't get over the surge of confidence that emanated from Yang's touch. This confidence led Blake to raise her eyebrows in a challenging expression directed at Weiss. Even if she had only been joking, the thought of somebody else dictating how the couple's relationship would play out made Blake go on the defensive.

Weiss resigned to sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Anyways," she said, purposefully trying to change the subject, "now that you're back, we might as well tell you what we were planning. Ruby?"

Taking the verbal cue, Ruby moved to stand beside the map. "Sure," she responded, sending a cheery smile in Weiss' direction before looking at Blake and Yang. "Alright, so Weiss and I were thinking that it'd be a good idea to go downtown for the day and look around. She said that if we're going to be spending most of our time here, we might as well know what the city has to offer." She looked at Weiss for what Blake assumed to be approval of the summarization. When Weiss nodded, Ruby continued. "We planned on just walking around, but we can do whatever. If both of you are up for it, we wanted to leave in the next hour."

Blake looked up at Yang. "I'm alright with going."

Yang nodded and smiled. "I'm in too, but how are we supposed to get there? The only thing we have is Bumblebee and she can only carry two people."

At the mention of the motorcycle's given name, Weiss sent Blake another incredulous look. This was returned with another noncommittal shrug. Weiss shook her head before speaking again. "I've already called my driver. He should be here soon to bring us downtown."

Yang snorted, barely able to hold back laughter. "Of course you have a driver."

This resulted in an indignant humph from Weiss before she spoke again. "Anyways, you two should take care of whatever you need to before we leave. He should be here soon."

Because the orders were so similar to those given by Yang earlier in the day when they left for the park, Blake found herself immediately thinking of retrieving Gambol Shroud. She saw that both Ruby and Weiss had their weapons on their persons so she was sure that they were thinking similar thoughts of how they might need their weapons within the kingdom's capital. She stood and turned to Yang. "I'm getting Gambol Shroud. I suggest you get your weapons as well. It's better to be safe than sorry."

"Blake, are you worrying about me?" The blonde winked and the raven-haired girl blushed. While it was true to an extent, Blake had not intended on making Yang think this way. The suggestion was only meant as an act of friendship.

"No! It's not that—I—"

Yang placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relax. I was just kidding." She sent a comforting smile before continuing. "Go get your stuff. I'll get Ember Celica and be right back." At this, she left, leaving Blake standing flustered in the living room. She watched Weiss and Ruby return to planning various trips on the map set before them for a moment, seeing how quickly the two forgot about the chaos of the moment prior and how they paid no mind to the new couple, choosing instead to return to conversation with each other. Blake turned and headed down the hall to her room.

As she reached her door, she found herself looking to Yang's room, her door having remained open. Inside of the similar beige room, Yang sat on her white-sheeted bed, fitting her gauntlets and loading them gingerly. She didn't seem to notice Blake looking in on her. Blake smiled and turned into her own room. She quickly grabbed Gambol Shroud and attached the ribbon wrapped around her arm to the grip of the gun before placing the weapon on her back.

As she left her room, Blake saw Yang walking down the hall and out into the living room. Stray beams of sunlight from the rooms to her right reflected off of the golden gauntlets on her wrists as she stepped confidently forward, unimpeded by any stigma or obstacle. Blake admired the sight, seeing the girl she admired move forward with the strength and steadfastness that originally inspired her adoration. She followed silently behind.

As the two entered the living room, they could hear Weiss talking with somebody. That somebody was not Ruby; the young girl still sat hunched over the map, staring intently at the markings and locations. Yang moved up to Ruby's side and bent over to look at the map as well. Following her lead, Blake moved to the opposite side of the coffee table and looked on with the sisters. From this closer perspective, she could see that the various markings and symbols were drawn around the area designated as the "Commercial District." There was a line leading out of the district towards the more rural areas. Blake could only assume that this line was the path leading from the house to their intended destination.

The muted clicking of heels on a carpet directed the girls' gaze to Weiss. "Our driver is here," she stated simply.

"_Our_ driver?" Yang asked. "Have you finally learned how to share, princess?"

Weiss shot back an icy glare. "Watch it. You're lucky I'm letting you come with us in the first place."

"Oh, don't be that way, Weiss." Yang grinned and put her arm over Blake's shoulder, catching the Faunus off-guard. "Think of it this way: if I don't go, Blake doesn't go." She turned her sights on Blake. "Isn't that right, Blakey?"

"Perhaps," she replied with a straight face. Maintaining this composure proved to be difficult for the young woman, but the drive to tease her girlfriend was overpowering.

"I thought you were going to back me up!" Yang cried, her face forming into a staged pout.

Blake shrugged. "I want to go." She then smirked at Yang, silently letting her in on the joke and pleading for civility.

"Fine," Yang resigned, "I'll behave; but only for you." She tightened the one-armed hug she had Blake in, eliciting a straight-faced blush from the Faunus.

"Then we're off!" Ruby exclaimed as she raised a fist and walked to the front door. Weiss followed closely behind, rubbing the bridge of her nose all the while. Blake and Yang stayed a distance behind the other two, enjoying the separation from the other teammates and the closeness that Yang's hold produced.

As they reached the door, the couple found that it had been left ajar, awaiting their exit. Yang disengaged from Blake and moved to the door. "After you," she offered, bowing to emphasize her playful cordiality. Blake merely rolled her eyes and proceeded through the entryway. Yang closed the door behind her and locked it with the key from her jacket.

On the dirt driveway was an obnoxiously white limousine. The only thing moderately modest about its construction was its length being noticeably shorter than that of a stereotypical limousine. In the driver's seat was a man wearing a tuxedo who looked almost identical to the porters which had arrived at Beacon the day prior. Everything from the color of the car to the emblem on the hood signified that this was a Schnee family car. Yang gave a low whistle as she descended the small staircase of the front porch. "I almost feel bad about making fun of your generosity." She stepped closer to the car, scanning it closely for even the most minute of flaws. "It looks beautiful. You've gotta let me drive it sometime."

She received a hard "No," in return.

She shrugged. "Hey, it was worth a shot." Yang then moved towards the door, causing Weiss to noticeably flinch. "Don't worry, princess; I'm just holding the door for you all." True to her word, she opened the door and stood to the side, holding the door open for the others, giving Weiss a smug look all the while. Weiss was then begrudgingly dragged by the wrist into the car by Ruby before the two took their seats. Blake smiled gratefully as she entered the car and took her seat on the bench opposite Ruby and Weiss. In a matter of seconds, the door was closed and Yang crouch-walked over to where Blake was and seated herself in the adjacent spot on the bench. Yang leaned against Blake as she put on her seatbelt. It was hardly visible, but Blake leaned into Yang as well, the two now supporting each other.

An airy sliding noise came from the direction of the driver's seat. "Where to, Lady Schnee?" An old and professional voice called back.

"Commercial District, please," she responded. "It doesn't matter where; we'll find our way."

"Certainly, Lady Schnee," the man accepted before the girls heard the same airy sliding noise as before. No further noise came from the driver's seat as the limousine began to roll forwards.

Yang reclined in her seat, propping her right arm up on the back of the bench seat behind Blake. "Did you two figure out what we're going to do downtown?" she asked.

"Not really," Ruby replied. "We just thought that we'd make it up as we go—just look around."

"So, we're just touring the city?" Blake inquired.

"Ruby and I are willing to do anything that seems remotely interesting. We don't have to tour all day if we don't want to," said Weiss. "We'll figure something out along the way."

"Sounds good to me." Yang then leaned her head on Blake's shoulder. "Hey, Blake?" she whispered.

"Hmm?" she hummed in response, too comfortable in her current situation to utilize intelligible words.

"Is there anything you want to do while we're out?"

Blake rested her head atop Yang's as she hummed again. "Not really. I haven't enough time in Vale to know where anything is."

Yang smiled and leaned further against her. "Well, then I'll be sure to show you around."

Blake reciprocated the smile. "Sounds good to me."

The two relaxed against each other, not bothered at all by the present company. As the car drove onwards into the city, the couple stared vacantly out of the window opposite them. Together, they watched silhouettes of buildings grow ever taller and pass by the window in an instant. Occasionally, the visions of radiant blue revealed themselves between separations of buildings and from the ends intersecting roads. What had once been a massive sky in the countryside of Vale was reduced to a comfortable presence that lingered only directly above oneself as constructions grew taller and nearer.

Boredom presented itself in the cabin of the vehicle to those more loquacious and impatient. Those who could be considered introverted had been content to sit in peace beside their respective partners. Blake found herself subconsciously rolling a few particularly long strands of hair between her fingers. What struck her as odd was that the hair felt lighter than her own and, admittedly, more delicately cared for. Her eyes cast themselves upon the lock of golden hair in her grasp, her thumb rubbing along the length of the strands out of routine. Blake could only assume that Yang noticed, judging by the content sigh she let out. The young Faunus did not relent, finding the motion to be both calming and distracting—a combination suitable to combat the introduced boredom that plagued even her.

While the highway around the city had been massive and time-consuming, the path from the house to the city was relatively short—at least, compared to the excruciatingly long trip from the airport to the house. Suburban strip malls and occasional expanses of open tracts of land were replaced by terraced shop fronts, windowsills both elevated and verdant, and opulent establishments wherever the eye happened to wander. The car drove by these, its driver being on a personal mission to find a suitable place to drop Team RWBY off.

Blake was roused from her reverie by the subtle slowing of the limousine. It seemed as though Yang was as well, unfortunately causing the girls' foreheads to knock against each other. They backed away and exchanged sheepish looks as they rubbed their respective heads. The vehicle slowly came to a stop and the door was opened from the outside. Immediately, sounds of ambient chatter flooded the interior of the car. Weiss and Ruby were the first two to exit, leaving Blake and Yang to unbuckle their seatbelts, still muttering apologies to each other for the accident. The sound before had been relatively muted, but as the two left the car, the constant conversation became suddenly livelier. Not a word of distinct dialogue could be heard amongst the masses and above the cacophony came the cries of street vendors, the choruses of laughter from numerous groups of people, and even the shrill chirpings of infrequent birds. If one were to listen close enough, one could hear the rhythmically chaotic splashing of what sounded like a large amount of water.

The source of this noise was immediately known to be a large, stone fountain that stood proudly in the center of the city square that the four girls were now located. Blake could only break her gaze from the majestic sight of the cascading water to look on in awe at the marble construct that jutted high into the air with its elegantly minimalistic color scheme. The imposing sight was so different and so magnificent that it made Blake aware of her technical status as a tourist and not be hindered by it in the least. The closest comparable things the young Faunus had seen during her time with the White Fang had been nondescript, steel radio towers that appeared from time to time in her areas of operation. While those were nowhere near as aesthetic as this construction, she had been able to find something worthwhile in the metal sights at the time. In her new life, the only object that could have any relation to this had been the spire of Beacon, and while this fountain paled in comparison to both the height and intricacy of the academy's construct, to see something so extravagantly large and superfluously opulent was a contrastingly pleasing sight.

She could feel a hand position itself next to her own and intertwine its fingers with hers. Yang stood smiling at the fountain before them. Blake gave a welcoming squeeze to her partner's hand which was returned in kind. She didn't care if there was a crowd at the moment. She had her girlfriend next to her who gave off an endless supply of confidence and comfortable warmth that were both able to ward off any socially anxious sentiments.

Due to the proximity of his voice, the driver could be heard asking, "Will there be anything else, Lady Schnee?"

"No, thank you," Weiss responded. "I will call when we require your services later."

Blake and Yang would have seen the man bow his head before returning to the driver's seat had their attention not been focused on the marble pillar ahead of them. They did, however, hear the car pull away and depart, leaving the four girls to their own devices.

There was a lull in both action and conversation between the four that was soon interrupted by Ruby asking, "What now?" Even if she had been present during the apparent planning, she seemed to be overwhelmed by the current location and was now effectively lost.

"We've already gone over this," groaned Weiss. "We're just going to look around and see where everything is."

"But where do we start, Weiss?" Ruby asked, audibly concerned. She swept her hand around, pointing to the area in which they stood. This place served as a central connecting point to six visible roads—two more could be assumed to have existed, however, various booths and passersby obscured any possible view of them.

Weiss was becoming visibly frustrated, a frown already having solidified itself upon her face and her eyebrows furrowing deeper by the second. "It doesn't matter which way we go. No matter where we go, we'll still achieve our goal of exploring the city."

A quick tightening of the grip on Blake's hand alerted the girl to Yang's attempt to get her attention. She looked to the blonde and found that she had moved closer, if only slightly. "Hey," Yang whispered, "what do you say about us going off on our own and giving them some alone time?" When Blake looked, she found the girl to have a mischievous smirk.

Blake smirked back. "Sure," she drawled. "You want to give _them_ alone time." This was returned with a playful glare. She laughed lightly. "I'm fine with it though." She felt her arm being pulled away by Yang, but she pulled the blonde back. "If we're going to separate from them, we need to set up a rendezvous point for later."

This caused Yang to pause and cease her pull on the Faunus. "You've got a point," she replied, still whispering, yet with a newly acquired smirk. "Hmm, now how to go about this…" Blake didn't necessarily like the mischievous overtone that the out-loud thought carried. With one hand already with Blake, Yang placed her free hand underneath her own chin, resulting in a form of contemplative pose that Blake felt was only for show. It only took a second for Yang to snap out of the pose and wink at Blake. Increasing her volume, Yang called out to Ruby and Weiss, "Hey, lovebirds!" This elicited a blush on the parts of both girls, but nonetheless garnered their complete attention. "Me and Blake are going to head out. We'll meet you back here at seven. See ya!" She didn't give the two any time to voice their complaints before she and Blake quickly walked off with equally satisfied smirks.

Neither of the two knew exactly where they were heading, they just knew that they were heading into the city blindly and were fine with that as long as they were together. They weaved through the crowds of inconspicuous figures and unidentifiable booths and stalls towards any street that would get them away from the city square. A mix of mischievousness and mirth coalesced in the minds of the couple as they fled from their teammates for the benefit of both parties.

Blake felt the grip on her hand tighten once more as they ran towards a crowd incidentally blocking the way to the nearest street, intent on barreling through it. The grip remained steady, allowing Blake to keep her eyes open as she ran through the mass of people. Previously, she would have not been able to focus on anything but the possibility of the crowd sending her condescending glares from all angles. However, with Yang's grip, she found herself able to make her way through the crowed unfazed, intact, and with her focus solely directed at the golden mane ahead of her. It felt as though only a moment had passed between when Blake first saw the crowd and when she saw the street ahead. Unlike the situation at the airport, Blake could not feel any sort of anxiety from the contact from Yang, instead finding a comforting embrace from her girlfriend.

Ahead was a street of cobbled stone, intended for only foot traffic. Various cafés and restaurants could be found on either side of the promenade and existed on both the ground and on a few terraces above. Rustic shops intermingled with cutting-edge technology stores, both types proving to be equally successful judging by the steady flow of ingoing and outgoing customers. A jaunty tune distantly affected the air, making the path seem all the livelier with the brassy sound. A beam of effervescent radiance descended upon Blake in the form of Yang's smile. "I guess this is it. What do you want to do?"

Blake subconsciously ran her thumb along Yang's grip as she answered, "I'm up for anything. What do you want to do?"

Yang hummed in contemplation. Blake could see the violet orbs scan the store fronts within the immediate vicinity. She looked to Blake uneasily. "How about we find a clothes store?"

There was a period of silence attributed to the falling interest in the suggested action on the parts of both girls. Blake didn't want to say anything rude with it being the first day of their relationship, but after seeing the overt look of dread in Yang's eyes, she knew that they were having similar thoughts. "Yeah," they both drawled condescendingly. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea," Yang said. While Blake wasn't opposed to the idea of owning different items of clothing, she believed that they would have been a waste of money when she already had multiple copies of the same outfit that was used for both combat and casual wear. She believed that if she was to buy clothes that were solely intended to be worn around casually, then they would only be proven obsolete once school resumed. She believed that Yang's disinterest was caused by her impatience and her affinity for anatomical attractiveness rather than exterior, material supplements. There was also the fact that Blake wanted nothing to do with a potential crowd or judgmental employees, but she wouldn't make this apparent if her pride had any say in the matter.

"How about this," Blake offered, "we each pick a store we want to go into and after we browse for some time, we'll see where our enthusiasm puts us." She felt as though it was a plan destined to fail and would only last for a short time, but it was a way of getting away from the previous suggestion for Yang's sake.

"Better than my idea," Yang beamed. "Where to?" Blake was about to object and offer her partner the first choice, but the blonde already had a counter prepared. "You came up with the plan, so you get to pick first."

Blake smiled gratefully before pulling her girlfriend along down the street. She had a destination in mind already—actually, it is to say that she had an idea of what type of store she wanted to visit; finding the store would prove to be the more challenging part, if only slightly. With Yang in hand, Blake found the confidence to blaze a trail through the multitudes of passersby and along the cobbled road. As the two progressed, the musical sound became louder and clearer, forming into the noise of a solo saxophonist. The player was a man standing by his case, accepting donations from fans of his music. Seeing this sight gave Blake the idea to find a music store to visit. However, she had little knowledge as to where one would be, let alone her initial destination. She figured that if she could not find one on this outing, she could next time.

The couple passed by the man, Yang dropping spare change into the case as she passed, and continued for some time along the pathway. In a matter of minutes, Blake stopped in front of a store with a title that made Yang erupt in laughter. It was a moderately large bookstore that Blake had never heard of named, "Novel, Tea." Blake's interest had been piqued by the title due to her affinity for both novels and tea. However, she had not noticed the wordplay and immediately regretted the decision once Yang started laughing.

Nevertheless, she pulled the giggling blonde into the store. At the chiming of the bell attached to the door, both were rendered silent out of routine. While both girls knew that it was common etiquette for a patron of a library to keep their volume to a nearly nonexistent level, it seemed that in this establishment such strict ideologies were inconsequential. Small groups conversed softly and openly while browsing the many shelves while a small café occupied a corner of the space, emanating a droning noise from the multitude of conversations occurring within. With her sight trained on the shelves in front of her, Blake barely noticed that her girlfriend was pulling her towards the café. She found that the sights of the many books with unidentifiable titles were slipping horizontally from her vision as the rich (and personally offending) scents of the café overwhelmed her. By the time she was able to ask Yang "What are you doing?", the blonde was already standing in front of a barista.

As soon as she was welcomed, Yang began to speak. "Hi, I'll take a bottle of water and a medium tea." Blake sent a critical look at Yang, only to be returned with a sunny smile. In that smile, Yang made it evident that she intended on being generous—to what ends, Blake couldn't be sure. She merely rolled her eyes in indignation.

A question arose as to what type of tea was being asked for. Yang looked to Blake who sighed. "I'll have a green tea." She looked to Yang. "Don't make this a habit," she said simply.

As Yang paid, she looked back to the figure beside her. "What? Can't I treat my girlfriend to something she likes?"

It is to note that Blake's previous state of mind had been rational and controlled. The subsequent thoughts and reactions were purely irrational and spurred on by paranoia caused by past experiences, leaving the Faunus to assume a personality far different than that which most believed her to have. While Yang might have intended the sentiment and rhetorical question to seem kind and possibly humorous, it elicited an unintentional and retrospectively irrational reaction from the Faunus. Blake quickly grabbed a bottle of water, shoved it into Yang's hands, and quickly ushered her to a remote table in the corner of the room. Yang seemed to be willing to play along for the time being as she seated herself at the table. Blake sat down and turned her face to the wall, trying her hardest to hide her face from the rest of the café, keeping her Faunus traits in such a state that her bow could not perceived as anything other than a piece of fabric. "What was that all about?" The blonde's tone was a bit harsh, but it expressed such worry that it was more than compensating.

Wide-eyed and with face blanching, Blake kept her voice to a purposefully sharp whisper as she asked, "Why did you have to say that?" Despite her attempts at keeping her heritage concealed, she couldn't help the fact that her bow twitched nervously every few seconds as she scanned the faces in the café.

Yang looked genuinely confused. "Why did I have to say what?"

Blake didn't answer. She just continued to watch the crowd for even the smallest of irregularities, finding even the most minute of quirks to be alarming. Her gaze shifted from a person as soon as he or she looked up to meet her gaze. A cough or a sneeze told fictional volumes about the conspiring lot in the bookstore and the slightest changes in the room could make her rationalize a worst case scenario.

"Blake?" Yang asked.

She couldn't hear her. Her eyes were now focused on the barista from before. She was behind the counter, preparing a drink, but Blake saw her actions as attempts to mask the machinations that flowed so steadily through her mind. She thought that behind the elastic bands of her visor would be a set of Faunus ears or horns—she was even beginning to see fur from behind the headwear that didn't quite match her hair. Blake looked away just as the barista finished making a drink and looked directly at her.

"Blake?" Yang asked again, this time trying and failing to meet her partner's gaze, but. "Are you alright?" This Blake was a far cry from the one Yang had known. She wasn't calm, cool, or collected by any means, being instead visibly on edge and seemingly frightened.

All she could do was wait. Blake watched the people at the tables, their numbers multiplied by her anxiety. At any moment, somebody would object to her presence and relationship and this objection would either be made canon amongst the crowd or be banished for ethical heresy. Either would only result in a riot—she had seen this happen numerous times before with the only difference being that she was now the root of the problem. She knew she couldn't run. That would definitely start the riot. She was prepared to fight—she might not come out alive, but fighting was all that she could do. Her fingers ached for the handle of Gambol Shroud but did not dare touch it, instead finding themselves nervously drummed upon the table top. Her breathing became labored and her vision began to swim, the people in the room became but silhouettes and the room itself became noticeably darker.

Yang finally found an angle to look into Blake's eyes, but was disconcerted at what she saw. Blake's eyes stared right through her, as though she wasn't there. "Blake?" she asked one final time, placing her hand over Blake's to cease the drumming.

For a moment, the light in the room returned, the people had returned to being nonissues, and the barista became undeniably human. Blake blinked twice, refocusing on the scene around her. She saw a hand tightly gripping her own from across the table and then the worried face of its owner. "Blake, what's wrong?" It took a moment for the figure's lilac irises to come into focus, but when they did, Blake was able to breathe somewhat easier, if only for the moment.

Yang did not relinquish her hold on Blake as she picked up her seat and moved it closer her. Her breathing was still shallow and uneasy, but not indicative of physical illness. As soon as Yang was seated, Blake instinctually leaned against her arm, whispering a chant of, "I'm sorry."

The barista was motioning to Yang from behind the counter that the tea was done. However, with Blake now gripping the arm that still held her hand, all Yang could do was gesture for the barista to bring the drink over herself. The barista looked as though she was going to complain, but a burning glare from Yang squashed any chances of her actually doing so. As soon as she was sure that the barista was bringing the tea to them, Yang began focus on her girlfriend and run a hand through Blake's hair.

The majority of the apologies were intended for Yang, but a fraction of them were designated for the past. Blake had found her way back into the inescapable void of remorse and panic, but found a light to hold onto in this time of darkness. All she could do was wait for this anguish to pass.

The blonde could only hope that her actions were having a positive effect as Blake gave no immediate signs of recovering from whatever it was that ailed her. Her ears had stopped twitching, but she began to shiver instead. This only caused Yang to pull the raven-haired girl closer and to begin repeating, "It's okay," as Blake continued her apologies. She simultaneously continued to comb her hand through Blake's hair while using the thumb of her other hand to rub a small, soothing circle on the back of the Faunus' hand. Neither of these actions seemed to completely return Blake to her normal self. While she had calmed down significantly, she was still affected by whatever it was that was plaguing her. The details as to what happened were unimportant to Yang for the time being, her only priority being that of making sure Blake was okay. Unfortunately, she had exhausted a majority of the ideas that she could come up with to console her. There was only one action left that could possibly work and stayed within the bounds of rationality. Yang ignored the heat rising to her face as she committed herself to the cause of bringing her girlfriend back.

She kissed the top of Blake's head.

Yang tried to hide the blush on her face by resting her chin on Blake's head. The normally care-free and extroverted young woman had been reduced to an abashed young girl being comprised entirely of anxiety for herself and her girlfriend. She wasn't embarrassed per say—she wasn't blushing at the idea of the other patrons of the café seeing what she had done—she was blushing because of the possibility of Blake realizing what she had done and not approving of it. Even if it was a relatively tame action for the exuberant blonde, it inspired a lack of confidence on her part.

The darkness that had momentarily clouded Blake's mind faded away at the feeling of a warm pressure above. There had been something that triggered this recovery process and while she did not know how or why she was given reprieve from the void of despair, Blake did not complain and gravitated towards the offered safety. What she saw when she actually tried to look was a sight of brown, yellow, and an oddly human tone of white. Seconds progressed before Blake realized what it was that she was seeing and what the warm pressure on her head was.

Blake sat up straight in her chair, unwittingly pushing Yang back into her own seat. She was breathing heavily again, this time more embarrassed than frightened. She glanced around the room to regain her bearings. She was still in the same café as before and before her was a cup of green tea. She only just remembered ordering the drink. She blinked a few times, desperately trying to figure out how long she had been unaware of her surroundings. Her gaze then turned to the figure she had been clinging to. She saw lilac orbs worriedly looking into her own. "Blake?" Yang asked tentatively. The tone that she used told Blake that something serious had occurred and yet she could not remember what could have happened. That is, she couldn't remember what had happened at first until the circumstances of the incident came back to her all at once. Her eyes turned downcast and her bow folded backwards against her head.

Blake felt Yang squeeze her hand as she leaned towards the Faunus. "Blake?" she asked again. "What's wrong?"

In a small voice, all Blake could say was "I'm sorry."

Her hand was wrapped in both of Yang's. "Hey," she said, leaning closer to Blake in order to catch her attention. "It's alright. You don't have to be sorry for anything; you didn't do anything wrong." Blake couldn't say anything in response. She thought about refuting these claims, but chose against it, choosing instead to sit in silence. "Blake?" she asked again. "Tell me what's wrong. I'm here for you."

That last sentence caused Blake to sigh. "It's nothing," she dismissed. "Don't worry about it."

"Blake." Her tone was a combination of scolding and caring as she lifted one hand to her girlfriend's chin and tilted her head so their eyes could meet. "That definitely wasn't nothing. You scared me there for a minute—actually, more than that. You scared me for a few minutes. Just tell me what's wrong Blake."

Blake couldn't bring herself to look directly at Yang. "It's just—" Her voice hitched. It was a mixture of shame and regret that made her unable to say it at first, but a look into Yang's eyes put cracks in her barriers. "It's just that—" She sighed again, this time in growing frustration at herself. She thought that she should just say it and get it out in the open. After all, she had apparently had Yang worried for some time now. As she looked into Yang's worried eyes, she found the will to say it. "I was afraid."

It wasn't much, but the fact that her inner strife was in some way communicated—even if in a small, vague way—calmed her and made things seem a little clearer on her own part. That is why when Yang asked what she had been afraid of, she was able to confidently answer, "I was afraid for you. And maybe I was a little afraid for myself." She sighed. "Honestly, I was afraid for us. When you told the cashier that I was your girlfriend," Blake didn't bother lowering her voice at this, "I was afraid of what others might think about us."

A warm, relieved smile played across Yang's features. "Is that all? Don't worry about what others—" She stopped herself from her reassurances when she saw the somber expression that Blake still held.

"I know it's not really normal—no, that's not it. I know our type of relationship isn't really common—at least, it wouldn't be back home. I'm worried that because what we have is so uncommon, others will see us differently." Blake's eyes cast downwards. "On top of that, I don't think it helps with me being a Faunus. As it is, we're already looked upon in a negative light. I just don't want people to look at you in a negative light because you associate yourself with me." Crying wouldn't be right at this time. There was no mourning or excessive sadness, merely acceptance of an opinion as fact.

This fact was immediately proven invalid as Blake was crushed in one of the hardest hugs Yang had ever given since the two met. However, unlike the times before, this one was not out of joy, but out of care that challenged the outside world to interfere. It took a second, but Blake returned the hug, finding herself feebly clinging onto the blonde in the middle of a bookstore café as though she had been the one life raft in the middle of the stormy sea of doubt that threatened to drown her. In that moment, crying felt right. She was sorry, but for a different reason now. She was sorry that she had ever doubted their relationship—sorry that she had reacted in the way she did because of a simple term of endearment. She wanted to apologize, but Yang was already speaking.

"Blake, I don't care." The statement was final and resolute. However, even if the bias of the current hug wasn't affecting Blake's perception, she would have found the statement to be compassionately dismissive. "I don't care if you're a Faunus, I don't care if you're not a guy, and I definitely don't care what anybody else thinks about us. I care about you, Blake, and nothing is going to change that. They can think I'm weird all they want; I won't have my feelings hurt. But if they try to stop us, I'll fight by your side until we let them know that we don't care."

Confidence had been restored, if only slightly. Blake still held on to her girlfriend, hoping that what she said was true. It was a cynical view of the world, but in times of despair, cynicism is often welcome. In turn, Blake moved closer to the girl still crushing her. "Besides," she heard and felt the voice say before a warm weight pressed against the top of her head, "if they say anything about it, well…we're both armed Huntresses-in-training." Blake could practically hear the smirk in Yang's voice as she whispered this final reassurance. Blake couldn't help but smile. Even with what Yang had said about the possibility of physical conflict, it was more than apparent that the suggestion was only a joke. Yang wouldn't drag her into any unnecessary fights and Blake took solace in this fact. Perhaps it had been the years of experience Yang had from being the big sister to Ruby that played into this protective comforting. Perhaps she really did mean that she was willing to fight for her. Either way, Blake simply replied with a sated hum of thanks in lieu of having intelligible words to reply with.

Moments passed and nothing more than Blake holding onto Yang occurred within the bookstore. Nobody except for those involved paid the action any heed, minding their own business and not caring about the couple in the corner. They didn't pay attention now and they hadn't paid attention before. Cynicism was met with equal cynicism.

Within the embrace, Blake felt arms moving from her back without the elbows releasing her from the hold. With her fear having been sufficiently diminished to a point near nonexistence, she was able to notice her surroundings and heard the out-of-place sound of moving liquid coming from above. As she pulled away from the weakened hug, she found Yang maintaining a sheepish grin whilst drinking from her water bottle. She pulled the bottle from her lips and laughed nervously. "Sorry. Probably the wrong time for this."

On the table sat the cup of tea, still warm but no longer hot. Blake could finally pay attention to it and sent a small smile to Yang. "It's fine. I should get to my tea anyway." This prompted both of them to focus on their respective drinks. Blake disengaged from her cup before Yang could separate from her bottle. "I'd feel bad about letting this go cold after my girlfriend bought it for me."

Yang just about choked on her water. "W-what?" she sputtered. It seemed as though Blake's show of how she was recomposed had worked better than expected. "But what about…?" She let the question hang open as not to cause another reaction from Blake.

But Blake wouldn't react negatively to this, having seen the error in her previous reaction by this point. "Yang, I'm happy about our relationship. I was just afraid of what others would think of us because of it." She smirked at her girlfriend. "But I think I'm fine with it now."

She took a sip of her tea as Yang beamed. "I think I'm fine with it too, kitten."

This stopped Blake's actions. "I'm not fine with that," she asserted, her tone proving that there was no hint of amusement behind her words.

"With what?"

"That…name!" She couldn't bring herself to say the word, not because it was potentially demeaning to the Faunus population or perhaps condescending on a personal level, but because it was so publicly intimate that it made the reserved girl shy at the name.

"What? Kitten?" This received a small glare. Yang laughed at the expression. "Sorry, the name's not going away." She put an arm over Blake's shoulder and said, "But I'm willing to keep it just between the two of us."

"Good," Blake stated flatly. "Keep it that way." Truthfully, she liked the name, but it wasn't something she wanted said in public. It blatantly alluded to her being a Faunus and made her want to move closer to Yang—neither of which complimented her attempted personality.

With the apparently impromptu issue resolved, the two managed to sit comfortably in the bookstore's café, sipping their respective beverages and silently enjoying each other's company. As Blake watched her girlfriend watch her, the desire to find a new book to purchase became less pressing to the point where the idea actually seemed boring. She felt content with sitting in the café rather than browsing the multitudes of aisles in the building. Even then, she wanted to leave the café that brought about memories of her recent outburst. "Yang?" What was the point of making a plan if those involved stay in the dark? "Where would you like to go? I don't really feel like getting a book here anymore."

"Are you sure?" From experience, Blake knew that Yang was masking her concerned feelings from her expression. Blake nodded, causing the blonde to drink the rest of her water. The bottle was now half full and was rapidly being drained as Yang readied herself to leave and allowed her supposed composure to fall to this nervous tick. "I have an idea, but I'd like to see if you're fine with it."

"Okay," Blake drawled, awaiting the proposition. It seemed odd to her that Yang would be doing this. She was inherently impulsive, so the act of asking for permission could be seen as an act of caution. However, Blake saw it as an attempt to make amends for whatever it was that caused her to react the way she had earlier.

"I'd like to stop by a video game shop, if that's alright with you." Yang cringed slightly as she spoke, possibly expecting Blake to respond negatively.

The response that was given relaxed Yang. "Sure; I don't see why not." She took a second to drink some of her tea, finding that it had already dwindled to below a quarter left. "What do you plan on getting there?"

There was a moment of hesitation that could be linked to surprise on Yang's part. "I don't know. I kinda want to look around and see what came out while we were at Beacon."

"Sounds reasonable." She drank the rest of her tea, finding the stoic visage she strived to achieve once again. She hoped that this demeanor would push away any memories brought up by the outburst and would make the time in the café seem relatively pedestrian to their everyday lives.

Only a few minutes passed by as Yang finished off the rest of her bottle of water. Blake could tell that she was trying to rush herself despite the size of the bottle that she bought. The sentiments were expressly excited and enthusiastic, so much so that Blake had to force herself from scolding Yang on the reckless action. As soon as Yang finished, she grinned widely, stood up, and offered a hand to Blake. After being pulled up, the grip wasn't released, forcing Blake to grab her cup with her opposite hand. The two left the café, depositing their drinks in the trash as they left. Blake couldn't help but gaze at the various titles out of the corner of her eye. Even if she was no longer interested in shopping for books for the day, she found herself at least intrigued by the titles. She forced herself to detach from this interest as the two walked back out into the warm, summer environment.

For the second time that day, Blake found a new appreciation for air conditioning. The heat of the coastal town pinched her skin and suffocated her slightly for the few seconds it took to become acclimated. It took her eyes a few seconds to catch up to her surroundings that so differed from the dimly lit café. When she could see again, she found herself being led along by the blonde whose hesitant, careful mood changed in the sunlight. She all but skipped along as she dragged Blake behind her . Although the Faunus could not see her face, she could tell that she held a joyous smile. Soon enough, Blake caught up to her girlfriend and matched her pace so that the two could walk side by side.

"I wonder how Ruby and the missus are doing," she heard Yang offer.

Blake didn't try to suppress a small laugh at the joke. "I'd imagine they have no idea what they're doing."

Yang's smile became a smirk. "You're probably right. Little sis is head-over-heels for the girl and she doesn't even know it." She looked to Blake with the same smirk. "Is it bad that I think it's kinda funny?"

"Not at all," Blake replied. "I'd imagine Weiss feels the same way judging by all the times that she's gone out of her way to scold Ruby specifically. That much scolding requires dedication." Yang laughed.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" she teased.

"Yang Xiao Long, was that intended to be pointed?"

Yang hummed as though she were mulling over the question. "Perhaps. I mean, _I_ wouldn't think it was."

Blake smiled in lieu of laughter and squeezed Yang's hand. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood right now." She looked to her girlfriend with the most caring and kind look she could fabricate. "Otherwise, I might have shown you just how 'dedicated' I really am." She dropped the façade, going back to her signature, neutral expression before actually laughing as Yang gulped while her eyes widened in fear. The Faunus leaned into her partner's arm for a moment in order to get her attention. "I'm joking, Yang. I'm not mad."

"I know, but what if you were?" She was obviously concerned, but Blake didn't worry much about it. If—and this "if" might as well have been a "since"—the two were to remain committed to their relationship, Blake believed that Yang would eventually learn her sense of humor and Blake would learn Yang's in kind. She figured that this instance of confusion would become a rare occurrence in the foreseeable future.

She leaned against the taller girl and stayed against her, not fearing what others on the promenade would think of them. "Well I'm not. 'What could be' doesn't matter when 'what is' is standing here, holding your hand. Don't worry about it too much, I was only teasing you."

Yang gradually smiled and kept walking, leading Blake down the still crowded street. With a moment to her own thoughts, Blake looked back upon the incident in the café. Her reaction had been odd to say the least. She had lost her composure at Yang's public mentioning of their relationship. Had she been in a rational state of mind, she still would have found the mention to be unsuitable for the environment that they were in, but would not have acted in such a severe manner. However, because she had not been in a rational state of mind, she had reacted in a most volatile fashion. The specific cause of this state of mind could not be found. Perhaps it was the number of people present or the infinitely irritating scent of coffee. All that Blake knew was that the instant that Yang said that she was her girlfriend, a gripping fear took control of her, causing her to act the way she had.

The only thing she knew about this fear was that as soon as the trigger was presented, rapid visions of her time in the White Fang appeared in her mind. Blake began seeing everyone else in the café as not people, but as enemies. Paranoia had been a commonplace occurrence while she had been in the White Fang, but she had gone without feeling it since she enrolled at Beacon Academy. She attributed the response to have been caused by culture shock caused by the number of patrons in the café for the time being. She didn't know the true cause of the reaction, nor did she want to at this juncture. At this moment, all she wanted was to be around Yang and enjoy the time spent with the exuberant girl. She mentally noted to come back to the issue of the reaction and paranoia at a later date because she had come to realize that their hurried walking had slowed to a crawl.

They stood before a small shop nestled between two other similarly sized establishments. Judging by the excited smile on Yang's face, this seemed to be their destination. Above, in red and white text, a sign read, "Game Place." The various posters and advertisements in the windows grew larger as Yang pulled Blake closer to the building. Unlike the other store, air conditioning was not particularly noticeable over the stifling air of the confined space. However, much like the other store, many of the people browsing were minding their own business as they scanned the shelves of titles. Yang gave a quick wave to the cashiers before heading over to the wall of games.

While the written word had been her preferred medium of entertainment, Blake was not oblivious to other forms of media. At one point in time, she had been interested in video games, just not enough to parallel her current enthusiasm for books. Over time, however, she had lost interest in the medium, although not entirely. From time to time, she would read articles on video games, trying to find a way to get herself back into that world, but having a hard time doing so. This is why when Yang studied a copy of a game titled, "Diaper Cat," she was able to add her own opinion. "I've heard of that game. Apparently, it received some great reviews."

Yang raised an eyebrow and was visibly surprised. "I wouldn't have thought that you play video games."

"I don't." Blake shrugged. "I used to, but now I just read up on them."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "What don't you read?" she facetiously asked, eliciting a similar eye-roll from Blake. "Well, since you know so much about it, what else can you tell me?"

She raised her eyebrows in a silent question asking whether Yang was teasing her or legitimately asking for her opinion. At Yang's patient expression, she figured the latter option was the case and took a deep breath as she tried to recall as much information as she could. "This is only from what I've read," she began, "but I've heard that it's an early candidate for game of the year. Apparently, the voice acting is good and it's well-written. On top of that, I've heard that the developers had an interesting and beneficial take on the cover-based shooter genre. Besides that, it looks to be pushing the boundaries of the otherwise antiquated hardware found in current-generation systems." She kept her composure throughout the entire summary of her knowledge, leaving Yang wide-eyed and gawking.

"Okay, you've sold me on it."

"What?" She had only intended on informing, not persuading. Yang had only asked her what she knew about it. The idea that this would be another incident where Yang spent her own money because of her was slightly alarming.

Yang wrapped her in a one-armed hug from the side. "I said that you sold me on the game. Now I'm gonna buy it and then we can find the newlyweds." There was a moment's pause before Blake noticed Yang's grimace. "Actually, forget I called them that. I'm not sure I'm ready to have Weiss as an in-law."

Blake simply regarded this with a short laugh in both sincere mirth and as an attempt to mask her uncomfortable sentiments about Yang spending money because of her. "Don't you want to look around a little longer? What if there's a different game that you like?"

Yang smirked. "I'm fine with this one. You seemed pretty excited about it." This caused Blake to blush out of embarrassment.

"I was just telling you what I know." She was backpedaling and she believed Yang knew it as well.

"Yeah, but you seemed really into telling me what you know." She winked. "I'm buying it. Honestly, I've been looking forward to this coming out for months now."

Now that Blake knew that she wasn't buying it solely because of her, she sighed. "Fine." This caused the blonde to toothily grin and pull her over to the registers. With a care-free swipe of a conspicuously white card, the process of checking out proved incredibly simple. It hadn't been a minute's time between when Yang decided on purchasing the game and when the two were outside.

Time seemed to have flown by without Blake noticing. When she had left the bookstore, she distinctly remembered a very blue sky above. Now an orange and yellow view dominated her vision in both the sky and on the ground. Yang swung the plastic bag containing the game around carelessly as she leaned against her girlfriend. The crowd on the street stayed about the same, but the hurried excited pace slowed now to a more leisurely one. During their time in the video game store, the street lamps had turned on, creating a fantastic trail of lights that ran the length of the darkening street. The swinging of the bag ceased. "Is there anything else you'd like to do while we're out?"

Blake hummed. "Not really. Did you have anything in mind?"

"Well," Yang began, "It should be around seven by now." Blake had to suppress any surprised expression about how much time had gone by. Because time had escaped them, Blake figured that her previous thought of finding a music store would have to wait for another outing. "I guess we should head back to the square and see if we can find Ruby and Weiss. Maybe we can see about going somewhere to eat. I haven't eaten anything all day and it's starting to get to me." Blake now felt bad about having eaten the slice of pizza that morning.

Despite the plans laid before them, neither of the two moved, choosing to look at each other in the glow of the late-afternoon sun and the nearby street lamps. There was no mischief or any teasing or sly remarks hidden behind the smiles that they both held. Only comfort and happiness radiated between the two. What had been minutes only felt like seconds as the two held their gazes on each other's eyes. When time eventually became a noticeable factor in their lives, the two looked forward again, both having heat rise to their cheeks. Blake cleared her throat in an attempt to pacify the situation. "Shall we?" she asked.

"We shall." Neither of the two could hide their embarrassment from the situation as both of their voices hitched in their own ways. They moved forward, leaning against each other awkwardly the entire way as they headed towards the city square.

Even if the two had officially established the fact that they had a romantic relationship between them, neither was completely sure that it was real yet. This awkwardness was only one instance in this initial uncertainty, showing that they were on some level comfortable with their relationship, but at the same time, they were unsure of how to act around the other. It was a mix of surprise and confusion—a disbelief that something like this could really happen to either of them and a lack of knowledge of what to do now that the relationship had been formed. However, the longer they walked down the path, the more confident their strides became and the easier it was to balance against the other in the moving embrace. This awkwardness would always exist to some extent, but it must be understood that this was only the first day in their relationship and it was yet to end. Blake couldn't have been happier.

* * *

The reference that I described in the author's note at the beginning of the chapter pertains to the title of the video game Yang bought. The name is directly pulled from a Rooster Teeth Short by the name of "Dev Cycle." I felt that because Blake is shown in the series to favor literature as a medium of entertainment, Yang should have her own preferred medium. The result was the idea that she enjoys film immensely. However, from a stylistic standpoint, I can only make a stationary viewing experience progress the plot so far. Then came the idea that she enjoyed video games due to the fact that it allows for her to involve herself in a form of media that is inherently engaging. From this, I had to think of some clever title that would be smiled at once and immediately forgotten about after. That is, I wanted to name it something original until I realized that I could keep this RWBY fanfiction a closed system of sorts by referencing another Rooster Teeth production. I should also note that this game is pertinent to the plot and will appear again in the story.

I would also like to draw attention to the writing of the café scene in this chapter. I understand that the scene starts abruptly and seems out of place and possibly out of character; however, that was a creative decision. I needed to make that scene stand out amongst the rest of the chapter, going so far as to make it overshadow every other scene in order to draw attention to it. This scene is incredibly important to the rest of the plot because it is the first instance where Blake's memories of her time with the White Fang are debilitating physically, mentally, and emotionally. More instances of memories taking precedent over the world around Blake will occur in the story, but I doubt any will be as jarring as the one in this chapter. I feel I need to note that these memories will not make this story part of the "Hurt/Comfort" genre on Fanfiction. The memories will be integral to the plot, but they will not be brooded upon.

Once again, thank you all for reading. I don't think I can express my gratitude enough without being more verbose than I already am. Your readership means a great deal to me. Thank you.

Stay safe and stay tuned.


	5. Chapter 5: Home

Honestly, there isn't much I feel I need to say about this chapter beforehand. I'm actually really happy with how it turned out so any preludes would just be narcissistic ramblings on my part.

Anyways, I'll step out of the way for chapter five of _Valence_.

* * *

Chapter 5: Home

"How are we going to find those two in this?"

The "this" in question was a large crowd in the middle of the city square—much larger than it had been earlier in the day and much louder as well. The cries of small vendors and shop owners were replaced by the amplified droning of the crowd enjoying Vale's night life. Unfortunately, this was the night life that neither Blake nor Yang could enjoy—not yet at least. The two stood at the precipice of the crowd, at the end of one of the streets that spawned from this center of activity. To the both of them, the crowd was utterly impenetrable. What was worse was that the two intended on finding two relatively shorter girls in the middle of the large crowd, as had been the plan earlier in the day when the crowd was not as numerous. Now arose the question as to how this impenetrable mass of humanity would be worked around in order to find Ruby and Weiss.

Yang was tapping her foot impatiently, sending an ineffectual glare into the crowd, hoping that this action would miraculously cause its members to disperse. Blake, on the other hand, was scanning her surroundings for any potential openings or ways to find the two girls. Her assumption that searching inside the crowd would be a bad idea seemed to remain true as she found no openings. After the events of the day, she felt somewhat at ease with the idea of entering a crowd as long as she had someone familiar such as Yang by her side. However, from an efficiency standpoint, it didn't make much sense to search for her vertically challenged friends on a horizontal plane that had many obstructions that were taller than even Yang. Her eyes shifted to the buildings above the square. "Yang," she began, catching the blonde's attention, "I think I have an idea."

"I'm all ears."

She thought the idea she had formed was a bit excessive, but she believed it had a definite possibility of working and offered it anyways. "We could head up to top of one of these buildings and see if we can find them from there."

"It sounds crazy." Blake was about to retort negatively until Yang continued. "But it sounds crazy enough that it just might work."

Blake groaned. She had walked into a reference. But she had to admit, she found it a little humorous—either that or she found the blonde to be an absolute joy to be around. Truthfully, she thought it a bit of both. She grabbed Yang by the wrist and whisked her away. "Come on," she sighed as she dragged Yang back down the street they had come from.

The two didn't walk far as Blake had only intended on finding the nearest inconspicuous place she could that would allow her the privacy required to climb up the designated building. Almost immediately, she found an alley near the building and led Yang into it. "Oh, I like this idea." This garnered the blonde a glare from the Faunus. She simply laughed.

Blake stopped in her tracks. "Really?" she asked incredulously. "We haven't been dating for more than a day and you're already making _that _kind of joke?" She wasn't necessarily angry at her girlfriend, but was ever so slightly agitated.

"Well," Yang chuckled, "you're the one dragging me down an alley at night. I can't be held accountable for your actions." She smirked.

Blake couldn't dignify that with a response. She turned down the alleyway again and continued to pull Yang along, leaving the blonde to giggle at her own joke. This giggling subsided as the two moved further down the narrow path that grew darker with each step. A subconscious caution fell upon the blonde, causing her to look over her shoulder from time to time at the diminishing light emanating from the now distant promenade. Blake, however, was unfazed by the darkness that grew around them. She noticed Yang's shifting glances but could see that there was no harm in the immediate area. She lowered her hand from Yang's wrist to her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze.

It hadn't taken the couple too long to arrive at their destination, but by the time they did, the only light from where they stood was the orange sky directly above. This left the alcove in the concrete jungle to be shrouded in shadows—this was exactly what Blake needed to proceed with her plan. Yang had to squint in order to make out the form of Blake moving away from her. Due to the low-light conditions of the area, she could only just see her girlfriend extending an arm to her back so that she could ready Gambol Shroud.

Yang was barely able to ask "Blake, what are you doing?" before said girl set the blade on her weapon to its horizontal position and moved her hands so that they gripped the ribbon that had previously been on her wrist. Blake looked back to her girlfriend, making sure that there was ample space between the two of them for what she had planned. Slowly at first, Blake began spinning the bladed end of Gambol Shroud by the ribbon, gradually letting the ribbon out to ensure that she wouldn't have to exert too much energy to maintain the force required for the action she was to attempt. As she increased the speed and power of the twirling, she focused her sights on the building in front of her, making a rough estimate as to where the blade would head if she released it. As soon as she was sure there was enough strength behind her motion and was confident that her aim was fairly accurate, she let go of her weapon while keeping her hands on the ribbon.

Gambol Shroud soared through the air, passing the multitude of windows and the metal staircase on the side of the building. In a matter of moments, the bladed end of the weapon flew past the roof of the building and kept ascending, undeterred by the fact that the desired height had been exceeded. Blake, however, felt that it had reached a suitable height and pulled on the ribbon, halting the progress of the weapon. This caused Gambol Shroud to quickly fall and clatter against the rooftop. Blake continued to pull on the ribbon until it grew taught, the blade hopefully having imbedded itself into the stone of the building's roof. "Huh," Yang contemplated as Blake began testing the strength of the attachment by applying her body's weight to it. "A grappling hook? I never would have thought of that."

Satisfied with the grip her blade had in the roof, Blake smirked in an unabashedly proud manner. "Well, we _are_ trying to be stealthy to some extent. And desperate times call for desperate meas-ears, right?" This latter comment was delivered with a playfully challenging glare.

Yang groaned at her own joke being used against her. "If you expect me to apologize for that one, I won't. I am proud of my puns and don't regret any of them."

"And I'm fine with that." Blake smiled, absent-mindedly twirling the hanging ribbon between her fingers. "I just don't want to wake up to them every day is all." Due to her inherent night vision, Blake was able to see the beginnings of a salacious grin making its way across Yang's face. Going off of the insinuations that her girlfriend's previous uncouth comment held, Blake figured that the blonde had inferred something that objectively wasn't in her recent statement. She had to at least try to keep these reactions from becoming a common occurrence. "Yang," she warned, donning a more serious expression, "if you keep thinking that, I'm going to leave you down here while I look for those two."

The grin turned into a frown as Yang conceded. "I'll behave."

"Good." Blake's proud smirk returned as she grabbed the ribbon again to test the hold. "Now we climb this up to the top and see if we can find Ruby and Weiss."

"Alright." The pacified demeanor Yang had instantly vanished as she popped her knuckles in preparation. Blake almost felt bad about how she had chastised the blonde, but now she could barely suppress a smile at Yang's care-free attitude having returned. "Who's going first?"

Blake shrugged. "I guess I will. I'll see if it holds before you come up."

She then prepared herself for the climb and made sure that the makeshift grappling hook would hold, testing her weight on it one last time. It seemed as though everything was set for her ascension, but just as she was about to grab the ribbon, she heard Yang tell her, "Be careful."

The words caused Blake to hesitate. They seemed so kind and so customary and yet, in all the time she had spent at Beacon and in the White Fang, she had never heard the phrase directed towards her. She had heard it plenty of times from one person to another and had even read about character saying it to one another, but she had never heard it herself. She looked over her shoulder and gave Yang a warm smile. "Thanks," was all she could bring herself to say before climbing the ribbon.

Due to the years of practice Blake has had with Gambol Shroud, the process of climbing the ribbon proved simple enough. When she reached the building's roof, she did not bother looking out upon the city square, instead, looking down to the alley below. What she found was a fairly distant Yang quizzically pulling on the ribbon. "Don't worry," she called down, sending a noticeable glance at the bladed sheath that was imbedded into the stone of the building. "It should hold."

"Should?" Yang exclaimed. "'Should' doesn't sound very optimistic!"

Blake smirked. "You don't want to be alone in the dark down there, do you?" Yang didn't say anything in return, instead choosing to secure her grip on the plastic bag in her hand before finally climbing the ribbon. Whereas Blake's climb was more efficient and nimble, Yang's could be considered hurried and brash. The blade dug deeper into the building, but did not break away as the ribbon attached to it held without a problem. When the blonde neared the top of the building, Blake extended her hand and helped Yang the rest of the way. She was heavier than she looked, but Blake figured that this was due to the extra height and higher percent of muscle mass. In fact, Blake felt as though she only acted as an anchor as Yang pulled herself up.

Yang didn't seem winded in the least as she practically jumped from the ribbon to the roof and chirped, "Thanks, kitten!"

This caused Blake to pull away from her girlfriend and face the opposite direction with her arms crossed. "What did I tell you about calling me that?" While she had been adamant about moving away from Yang as a form of temporary punishment, she tensed as she felt a warm presence move up next to her and an arm falling over her shoulder.

"Well you can't be all that mad at me about it." The tone she had adopted was more of a teasing one now. "I mean, I can see you blush every time I call you kitten." In her flustered state, Blake hadn't realized that she had turned so that they could overlook the city square below. This view cast a light on both of their faces, presumably enough so that Yang was able to see her flushed face that only grew in intensity at the second reference of the name.

Backed into a corner and with no means of staging a witty reply, all Blake could say was, "Shut up."

"Nah," Yang drawled. "Admit it, you like the name." To further press her point, she tightened the hold she had on Blake.

Blake rolled her eyes and sighed. "Can we just look for Weiss and Ruby? It's getting late." However, she found that Yang did not relent from the embrace and had started staring at her with an oddly wistful and contemplative expression.

This expression quickly faded away after only a few seconds. "Fine," Yang sighed, notably unhappy that the teasing had to come to an end. The two walked over to the edge of the building to get a better view of the square below. They were initially blinded by the sheer amount of lights that could be found atop and between the many stalls and smaller vendors, on the many lampposts that circled the area, and inside of the large fountain in the center, making the water glitter in hues of the shifting colors. From this angle, the entire crowd could be seen. The size of the group was large enough to make the two question why they had initially thought that going through it would be even a plausible idea. The crowd was more condensed around its exterior but thinned around the center. Regardless, the entire square was congested, making it difficult for the Faunus to spy the other partnership.

Scanning the masses below was proving more difficult than Blake had imagined. She had thought that getting a higher vantage point would give them a greater chance of quickly spotting two girls in dresses of contrasting colors. However, this had not been the case; if anything, the vantage point added a new layer of difficulty in having to process more information at one time. Blake felt as though she must have overlooked the duo more than once by now, causing her subsequent glances over the crowd to become more hurried and frustrated. It was only when Yang nudged her with her elbow and pointed to a part of the crowd that Blake was able to see what she had missed.

There was a small opening in the crowd that was just relatively large enough that Blake had to ask herself how she had missed it. The crowd didn't dare enter this circle for what was in the center of it. A girl in a white dress had her hands on her hips as she slightly leaned forward towards a girl dressed in black. With attention now focused on this sight, a loud, shrill voice could be heard coming from the girl in white as she seemingly scolded the cowering girl who stood opposite herself. Between the penetrating reprimanding and the outlandishly red cloak, the couple on the roof knew that they had found Ruby and Weiss.

Now the only question was how to get to them. This question was raised by Yang when she asked, "Now how are we supposed to get to them?"

When Blake looked over, she found the light of the city square glittering off of the lavender irises of her girlfriend. She smiled at the sight, barely able to keep herself from losing herself to blissful inactivity. "I remember where they are. Let's climb down and we can head over to them."

Yang frowned. "How are you going to get your weapon down then?" Her logic, as it seemed, was that if the two were to climb down the same way they came up, there wouldn't be any way to retrieve Gambol Shroud due to it being lodged into the roof and neither of them having the ability to find enough leverage to dislodge it.

"I have an idea," Blake stated as she moved to peer over the other side of the building and into the alley. Satisfied with whatever it was she saw, she turned back to Yang with the same smile etched on her face. "You can climb down. I'll meet you down there." She looked to her partner who had become silhouetted by the light from the square and was surrounded by a halo of yellow-orange sunlight that caused the outline of her form to glow.

"Are you sure?" Blake nodded. "Well," she began, seemingly willing herself to leave, "I guess I'll see you down there." Her eyes didn't want to leave Blake as she moved to the grappling hook and grabbed the ribbon.

It looked like she was waiting for something since she had grabbed the ribbon and hadn't made a move to climb down it. For some reason—be it genuine care or newfound courtesy—Blake found herself telling her, "Be careful." At this, Yang grinned widely and jumped away from the building.

Blake rushed over to the edge of the building, unable to say anything as she knelt to look over into the alleyway. The quick, reckless action horrified her at first, but upon further inspection, it proved to be a very Yang thing to do. She sighed in both relief and frustration as she watched Yang rappel down the building. She continued to jump down the side of the building, letting a few more feet of the ribbon pass by each time. Every jump caused the faint rustling of the plastic bag against the wind. In a flourishing leap, Yang descended the final story and landed with her hands on her hips in a proud, triumphant pose. The grin that she held from before remained on her face as she looked up to the amber eyes that flashed in the darkness. Blake groaned. She felt as though she in some way incited this response from her warning to take care. "I told you to be careful!" she called down.

"I was!" she exclaimed. "I'm fine, aren't I?"

"No, you're reckless." Blake muttered this to herself as she prepared to descend the building. She dislodged Gambol Shroud with some effort, coiled the ribbon back around her forearm, and placed the weapon on her back before she took a few steps away from the edge of the building. She heard Yang call up to ask where she was going now that she was out of her vision. This was answered by Blake taking a running start towards the edge of the building before leaping as far as she could away from it.

Blake could not verbally reply due to the concentration required for the planned maneuver. What was to happen was Blake would jump from the building and utilize her Semblance to decelerate her descent. After quickly plotted out her points in which she would materialize solid shadows, she began to move. What resulted was her jumping from one shadow to the next, each being a sizable distance away from the others as to not increase the total time of the descent yet close enough so that there would be no way of causing injury to herself. After a total of eight jumps, Blake landed casually on the concrete of the backstreet. She held a straight face and controlled her breathing so that she would not seem the least bit exhausted as she moved over to where Yang was. The blonde was applauding her as she neared and told her, "I'd give it a six-point-five. Ten for the landing, but six-point-five overall."

"That's all?" Blake smirked as she moved past her girlfriend.

Taking the hint that Blake intended on finding their teammates now, Yang followed as she talked. "I mean, it looked cool and you made it look great," she winked, causing an eye roll, "but I don't think you were careful enough." This last part was said mockingly, causing the raven-haired girl to give her a flat look.

"It was either jump off of the building or lose Gambol Shroud. I think I made the better choice." Looking back on the action, perhaps it had been somewhat excessive. There had been the building's staircase that Yang had seemingly forgotten about—Blake made it a point not to mention this. Some part of her wanted to outdo the stunt that her girlfriend pulled. Nevertheless, the sentiments Yang was showing now were very much welcome. It didn't feel as though it had taken as long to get back to the main thoroughfare than it had coming from it to the alley. The two had found their way back into the midst of the general population, amongst the light of the street and the enthusiasm of the crowd.

"Then what was all that about telling me to be careful, huh?" She moved in front of Blake, choosing to blaze a trail through the crowd of the street while walking backwards. "What you did didn't look careful to me."

Blake couldn't help but watch behind Yang since the girl didn't seem to be looking where she was going. "I knew what I was doing. You've even seen me use my Semblance before. What's making you so concerned now?"

Without having to glance behind herself, Yang was able to dexterously sidestep an inattentive passerby while keeping her regular carefree stride. "Well, you're not just my partner now, you're my girlfriend—Sorry!" She cut herself off momentarily, the reason for which Blake was unaware of until Yang spoke again at a marginally quieter volume. "You're my girlfriend too and it just made me worried seeing you jump from that building."

Blake frowned. "How is that different from what you did? I was worried too."

She scratched her neck sheepishly. "I had a rope to rappel down with?" Though it was intended to be a statement, the lack of conviction behind it caused it to sound like a question. "Look, I'm sorry, Blake. I probably should have told you first; I wasn't thinking."

Sighing, Blake rubbed the bridge of her nose. Yang sounded sincerely apologetic, but the backpedaling almost gave the bow-wearing girl the wrong impression. "Yang, it's alright. I'm sorry too. Just—" She sighed again, this time looking up to meet Yang's gaze. "Just promise that you'll warn me before doing something like that again?"

Yang returned with a smile. "Sure; if you promise me the same thing."

"I think I can handle that." This made Yang's smile grow wider for a moment before she turned to walk forwards again, facing the impending, impenetrable crowd. The size of the mass had not diminished—in fact, the crowd seemed to have grown larger since the two last stood on the precipice of the square. Blake made an attempt to once again find an entrance into the crowd but found none. "Now, how are we going to—"

"Excuse me! Coming through! Out of the way!" Yang hadn't slowed her stride as she neared the crowd and instead chose to barrel through. There were a few disgruntled comments made, but other than that, there was nothing keeping the blonde from breaking through. Seeing this, Blake followed closely behind, finding that the berth that was made by Yang's intrusion large enough to separate herself from the rest of the crowd. "Hey!" she called back. "Where are they? I thought we'd have found them by now."

"Head right!" Blake had to shout back in order to overcome the sound coming from those around them; however, she felt as though her voice didn't carry well when she yelled and was beginning to ready herself for another shout before Yang began veering right. As the sea of humanity parted, a shrill voice was becoming more and more clearer, indicating to the two girls that their destination was almost in sight. Nothing pertaining to where Ruby and Weiss were seemed to have changed from when Blake watched the crowd from above; the two still stood in an open area in the center of a large group of people. The closer Blake and Yang got to this open area, the more willing people became to back away.

Weiss had been shouting at Ruby for a reason unknown to either Blake or Yang. What is known is that Yang walked into the center of the circle and quickly led both girls out of the clearing and away from the eyes of onlookers. Blake chose to skirt around the outside of the crowd, moving so that she met the three on the other side. No words were exchanged between any of them nor had there been any reactionary facial expressions aside from those Weiss gave Ruby. Yang continued her brash warnings to the impeding onlookers as she forged a way out of the crowd and onto another branching promenade. As soon as they were out of the sea of people, Yang brought all of them to a halt and turned to look at her teammates. "Alright? Who's up for dinner?"

"What is wrong with you, Yang?" Weiss all but screamed. "You barged in and interrupted our conversation. Do you have any manners at all?"

"That didn't look like a conversation from where we were standing," Blake offered. From where Blake now stood, she could see that Weiss' normally pale face had grown abnormally red, presumably due to frustration and subsequent lack of oxygen from venting this frustration. It seemed to only turn further scarlet at her words.

Weiss huffed and turned away from the rest of the team, crossing her arms. When Blake turned to look at her partner, she found her with a hand on Ruby's shoulder. The team leader hung her head in what looked to be shame while her sister attempted to pacify her. She heard the blonde ask, "Ruby? Is there anywhere you want to go eat?" A quick shake of the head was the response. Yang's eyes drooped for a moment before she looked at her sister with a hopeful smile. "Is everything alright, sis?"

"Ye-Yeah, I'm fine." Her voice was weak, but it seemed as though a façade of hopeful happiness was being formed and was making its way through to her features.

Due in large to Blake's heightened sense of hearing, she could hear what Yang asked her sister when she moved closer in an attempt to speak confidentially. "Do we need to go home? We can order take-out from some place if we need to."

Blake did not need a heightened sense of hearing to hear how Ruby responded. "No, I didn't mean it like that! I'm fine, really!" Her timid demeanor had vanished and was replaced with her regular personality, albeit a slightly more panicked version of it. "I meant that I don't care where we go." Blake from afar and Yang from nearby gave the girl a critical look before they looked at each other, wondering the same thing. Their thoughts, however, were interrupted by Ruby's insistence of "I promise! Yang, I'm alright. I just think that…umm…I just think that you and Blake should pick where we go!"

The suggestion was blatantly a means of covering something up; however, the two would humor the girl for the time being. Yang looked to Blake, giving her a look that asked a question separate from what she actually said. "Blake, do you have any place in mind?"

Blake took this look as Yang asking whether or not there was something serious going on between Ruby and Weiss. To answer the unspoken question, Blake dismissively shrugged before looking at Weiss. The heiress still looked away from the group. Blake figured that she didn't care where they went. "You've lived here before. Why don't you decide?"

Yang looked to both Ruby and Weiss before she smirked. "Okay, I think I have an idea."

A groan came from Weiss. "I don't like the way you said that."

"Is there anything you _do_ like about me?" Weiss didn't have time to respond before Yang amended her own question. "Besides my sister?" Blake had to cough to conceal a laugh that had snuck its way out while Ruby sent a glare at the blonde. However, this glare paled in comparison to the ferocity evident in the one Weiss sent. Fortunately for Yang, glaring was all the heiress could do at the moment, words having escaped her at the teasing. "If anybody has a problem with me picking where we eat, speak now or forever hold your peace." The glares from the two girls only intensified but neither voiced their opinions. "That settles it then. Come along, little ones! We're off to find some dinner."

As soon as she was sure that both Ruby and Weiss were following Yang as she marched off towards an undisclosed destination, Blake began to move. She quickly caught up to her ebullient girlfriend, overtaking the disgruntled pace of the other partnership easily. Yang smiled at her expectantly. "What are you planning?" Blake asked, genuinely curious and not at all worried about possible repercussions of whatever machinations the blonde had in store for the others.

"Nothing at all!" Yang singsonged. This was followed by the girl moving closer to Blake and placing an arm around her. While the gesture normally would have been an act of affection, this instance proved Yang to have ulterior motives. Now that she was closer, her voice lowered to a volume not audible from where Ruby and Weiss walked. "There's totally something going on between those two and I plan on finding out what it is."

"Isn't that an invasion of privacy?"

Yang tightened the hold she had on Blake. "Hasn't stopped me before." She loosened the hold. "Now you're going to help me like the wonderful, beautiful girlfriend you are and get some information out of those two."

"As fun as that sounds," she disengaged herself from the hold, "I think I'll pass."

"What?" Yang cried. "C'mon, Blake! Help me out here!"

Instead of returning to the sideways hug, Blake found Yang's hand and intertwined their fingers. "Yang, I can't do that; it wouldn't feel right. But I'm not going to stop you from trying to figure this out."Yang's frown lifted into a slight smile. Unfortunately, it was not a full smile and Blake wanted to rectify that. "I won't completely rule out helping you. If I become interested, then I'll help; but as it stands, I can't do it."

Yang's smile broadened, if only a little. "I guess that makes sense." She sighed. Seeing that she still wasn't cheered up, Blake decided to take the hand she had wrapped in hers and put it over her own shoulder, finding her way back into a sideways hug. A small, short laugh came from Yang. "Thanks, kitten. I won't let you down." Blake's bow twitched irritably, but before she could respond, Yang said, "Sorry, I can't stop it; it wouldn't feel right." Blake sighed while Yang laughed.

Down the path the two walked, followed by their disgruntled red and white compatriots. Because the thoroughfare was immediately different from the one she and Yang were on before, Blake could not fathom where they were headed, choosing instead to walk closely by her girlfriend's side. She trusted the warm figure to know where she was going so she resigned to admire the warmth of the sun as the red star in the distance began its descent into the horizon. Even with the crowd around her, Blake found a peaceful solitude under Yang's arm to the point where she couldn't much mind her surroundings as she lost herself in the calmness of the setting.

* * *

The Kingdom of Vale's sky burned orange due to the setting star that had slowed to a crawl. The night life now came in full force with the shopping crowd having dispersed and given way to those that searched for dinner. Four of such people stood outside of "Flaherty's Bar & Grill," a slightly more elegant chain restaurant than other competitors. This, as Yang had explained, had been her dining choice. Ruby was immediately enthusiastic about the restaurant while Blake was, as she stated, content. Weiss didn't seem openly ready to accept the new locale, but Blake knew she would warm to it, if only slightly and eventually. The four stood outside not to admire the purposefully rustic feel of the building's exterior, but to debate a topic which would not have been a problem had it not been their summer break.

"No!" Ruby yelled. "I'm not hiding Crescent Rose behind a dumpster. That's sick and wrong!" During their time at Beacon, the members of Team RWBY had come to believe that carrying around their weapons at all times (even to meals) was to be considered normal. This was not the case in everyday society. The problem that faced the four now was what to do with their weapons if they wanted to sit down and eat at a restaurant.

"Well I'm up for whatever suggestions you have!" This same conversation had been going on for a while now, as evidenced by Yang's irritation. The conversation had mainly been a back and forth between Yang and her sister with a few instances where Blake would interject to keep Yang from doing something she would regret. Weiss, up until this point, had been quiet for the most part with the exception of a few annoyed sighs or groans.

However, these passive-aggressive noises could only sate her annoyance for so long. The girl in white walked over to Blake as calmly as she could before unfastening Myrtenaster. "Hold this," she said simply, presenting her sword to the bow-wearing girl. Blake took it and chose not to question the action even when Weiss walked into the crowded lobby of the restaurant. While the sisters had been bickering, the restaurant had been steadily filling up and now it was at the point where Blake thought that they might have to choose a different venue. That is, she believed that it would be nearly impossible for them to get a seat in the restaurant before Weiss returned not a minute after she entered the building. "Would you two cut it out!" she snapped at the sisters, catching their undivided attention in the process. She cleared her throat. "Now, if you would follow me, I've convinced the management to let us have our weapons with us. We also are waiting to be seated right now, so I'd suggest that you two get over whatever it is you're bickering about soon."

The fierce expressions on the faces of Ruby and Yang instantly faded away and were replaced with equally excited and eager faces. They followed closely behind Weiss and Blake as they made their way towards the building. "How did you get them to let us in like this?" Blake asked.

Weiss scoffed. "I'm a Schnee. All I have to do is mention my name and people grovel."

"And you don't have a problem with throwing that much power around for something like this?"

"Hardly." The heiress glanced over her shoulder at the sisters who were now discussing what they wanted to eat. "It was worth it just to get those idiots to shut up for once."

Blake raised an eyebrow at the name she had given the two. Usually, Weiss would resort to calling them "dolts" or something of the kind. "Idiot" was a much harsher word. "Weiss," Blake began, having no intentions about unwittingly aiding Yang in her endeavors, "did something happen between you and Ruby while we were gone?"

"I don't want to talk about it," was all she said before she flung open the door of the restaurant in order to let herself in. Before Blake could react to the door closing on her, she found a gauntleted hand holding it open above her head. She entered and smiled back at Yang who had been holding the door open for her and Ruby.

Blake was in a confined space with a large group of people. The lobby of Flaherty's was packed to the point where Blake felt the need to question if this amount of people was contrary to the whims of the fire marshal that set the maximum occupancy limit. This was one of many questions that ran through the mind of the Faunus so that she may try to distract herself from those around her. She hadn't seen the true size of the crowd before she entered, but now that she was inside and looking at the people, she couldn't move. The dimly lit foyer was made just a little darker by the thought of all of those eyes being focused on her bow. She knew that she was blocking the doorway and there was nothing that she could do about it; she couldn't move to let Ruby pass as she squeezed behind her. People were everywhere; swarming the host's table, clustering on the benches, and even blocking one set of double doors due to their collective mass. Her breath became shallow at the sight.

A warm presence moved up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. Blake could let her shoulders relax at the touch. "Hey," Yang said, bringing Blake out of her trance. "The table's all set up. Let's get moving." Though there were orders in Yang's suggestion, they were given softly, allowing Blake to comply with a small smile. As she was moved between the groups of people into the dining area, Blake actively tried to regain her composure. It was not until she was amongst the tables and away from the crowd that she was able to breathe again. She looked to Yang who held a more serious expression than she was used to. However, with Blake's gaze trained on her, she smiled. Blake's pace increased and steadied.

She hadn't realized while in her incapacitated state that Ruby and Weiss had already headed off to their table. This table could be considered to be more of a booth and was located in a remote corner of the dining area, a choice no doubt made by Weiss. She and her partner had already seated themselves on one side of the booth, leaving the opposite bench empty for Blake and Yang. As Blake approached, she could tell that the two had begrudgingly sat on the same side, judging by their constant frowns and glares at Yang.

In seeing these two act this way, Blake was able to move efficiently and on her own, now able to forget about the multitudes of people who overcrowded the lobby. She slid her way into the booth, opting to take the seat closest to the window in order to make sure that Yang didn't sit directly across from Weiss. Yang sat down right after her, placing the bag from Game Place in between the two of them. Both took a moment to adjust their posture and acquaint themselves with their new environment. The dim light of the foyer carried over into the dining room, adding to the modern industrial feel of the building. Red bricks and wooden supports made up the walls, contrasting the beige stone exterior of many of the buildings in Vale. This contrast was made apparent to the group by the picture frames on the walls that held photographs of the city's landmarks and sights. A common theme in these pictures was the inclusion of this specific establishment.

The group remained in silence, too preoccupied with their own thoughts to speak to one another. Blake watched the two sitting across from her glare at Yang, still having not yet let go of her jokes. Yang didn't speak, probably too concerned with keeping up her confident visage in spite of the spiteful looks she was being given. Blake alternated between watching the lack of conversation at the table and the pedestrian movements happening on the other side of the window. Because of that small sheet of glass that separated her from the world outside, Blake could safely watch the people of the city walk by without feeling the stress of being unwanted and watched.

A slight shuffling sound coming from the carpet alerted Blake to a presence beside their table. He was a man around their age, probably a little older. The glares on both Ruby and Weiss' faces remained, only now redirected at the newcomer. Yang held an interestingly neutral expression as she looked at the waiter. "How are you ladies doing tonight?" The glares and the neutral expression from the blonde seemed to have not affected the young man in the least.

Instantly, Yang perked up at the customary conversation starter. "We're doing great. How about yourself?" The glares lingered.

He grinned. "I'm just fine. Now what can I start you all off with to drink?" The question seemed to break Ruby's glare as she scoured through the menu in front of her. Weiss was not as easily deterred from her sentiments.

"Water," she said flatly, almost at a level where she was growling at the waiter.

He wrote down the order on a notepad before looking to Ruby. She hummed in contemplation as she quickly scanned the list of drinks. "I think I'll have…umm…" She suddenly brightened up at something on the menu. "I'll have a cookies and cream milkshake." He jotted this down before looking to Yang, a smile now present on his face.

Yang set her menu down, having been gazing at it while the others made their orders. "I'll have a strawberry sunrise with no—Wha—Hey!" She was caught off-guard by an elbow to her side.

"She'll have a water," Blake said calmly, keeping her eyes off of her leering girlfriend. Before the waiter could speak again, she continued. "And I will have an iced tea, unsweetened."

He wrote their orders down. "I'll get your drinks out to you in a minute." And at that, he left, leaving the table's occupants in a wholly volatile state.

"What was that for?" Yang was more confused by the action than anything, but hints of anger could be found seeping their way into her tone.

Without looking up from her perusal of the menu, Blake stated, "As your partner and girlfriend, I'm not going to let you order anything containing alcohol." As if she could see Yang beginning to object, she said, "That's final."

Her statement didn't seem to deter Yang from arguing. "C'mon Blake! We're celebrating!" Nobody at the table looked to be expressly ecstatic about recent events.

Blake closed the menu and set it down. "You're underage." She looked at the blonde. The stern expression she had left nothing needed to be said. It nonverbally communicated all of warning, care, and disappointment. She wasn't necessarily disappointed at her for trying to order a drink unsuitable for her age, but more so Blake was disappointed in her because she saw this request as an attempt on Yang's part to escape from the group. She saw it as Yang's attempt to augment her own experience over the experiences of everyone around her. This rationalization made Blake feel inadequate in a small way, in that she felt Yang wanted to supplement her time with the Faunus with the drink. Blake halted this train of thought and the possibility of it coming to fruition with the denial of her order.

Whether or not Yang could interpret the ideology behind the sentiments of the stare could not be determined. What could be determined however was her willing compliance to Blake's whims after an upset of a few seconds. "Fine," she sighed, "A water was probably would've been better in the first place. Just because we're not at Beacon doesn't mean we don't have to stay in shape." Her previously forlorn demeanor vanished at the newly fabricated grin. Blake knew she was a bit upset over not getting the drink she wanted, but the fact that she was trying to appease Blake made said girl smile. Instead of voicing her thanks and drawing attention to their recent nonverbal conversation, Blake simply leaned against her. Yang leaned back.

A rattling sound from behind told Blake that their drinks would be arriving at any second. True to form, the drinks arrived, being carried by the waiter who was having a difficult time concealing his uncertainty about the hold he had on the tray. He struggled to get out the names of the drinks as he set them down in front of the respective girl who ordered them. As soon as he finished setting the drinks, he regained his confidence and tucked the tray under his arms, an almost overconfident grin forming on his face. "Okay," he began, pulling out his notepad and pen. "Now, what can I get you all?"

There was a period where nobody at the table could speak, being restrained by the tension between them. It was only due to the man's expectant look and Weiss' affinity for efficiency that the silence was broken. "I'll take a Caesar salad."

As the man noted this, Ruby's head spun to look at Weiss. She looked mortified at the order. Without removing her gaze from the girl sitting beside her, Ruby said, "I'll have a cheeseburger and fries."

"I'll take what she's having." Yang smiled.

Blake watched out of the corner of her eye and waited for the man to finish writing everybody else's order down. As soon as she saw him lift his head, she spoke. "I'd like the grilled salmon, please."

The smile he had was perhaps too amiable. In light of recent events, Blake could even see the waiter's smile as being somewhat flirtatious. Though Blake purposefully tried to show disinterest, the waiter didn't seem to understand this. He smiled widely. "Certainly," he said with a wink. Blake did not care for the action and thusly did not react. However, a sudden wave of heat washed over the entire restaurant. People in the other booths and tables of the establishment were visibly confused, looking around and leaning towards others to confidentially complain about the building's heating system. Meanwhile, the girls at the table had their attention immediately trained on Yang. She wasn't angry now, but for the briefest of seconds, she had been. Now she simmered in her annoyed state. The waiter wasn't being affected by the glare now given by the blonde; more so, he was affected by the change in temperature and immediately excused himself from the table to take care of the order and fix the thermostat.

Jealousy was what caused the heat wave. Blake knew this because she had seen the wink, but judging by Weiss' question of "What was that for?", neither she nor Ruby knew why Yang was unable to control her aura. Blake put her hand atop Yang's, hoping that the hold would relieve the annoyed state.

Yang sighed, exchanging her annoyance for exasperation. "I don't wanna talk about it." She crossed her arms on the table and rested her head on them, not relinquishing Blake's hold. Blake found the blonde's thumb tracing a pattern around her knuckles.

"Whatever." Weiss crossed her arms and watched Ruby begin to work on her milkshake. "Just don't burn down the building and I won't care what you do."

A small smirk played across Yang's face. "I'll make sure to keep that in mind, Ms. Forest Fire." Weiss lifted her nose at the statement in a feeble attempt to hide the heat of embarrassment prevalent on her face. Both the reaction and the nickname caused Ruby to laugh, causing her to withdraw from her drink. Yang, meanwhile, set her head back atop her arms . Blake's brows furrowed.

"I forgot," Ruby giggled, "you totally set the forest on fire!"

"Shut up," Weiss snarled. "You got in my way. You should be lucky that you weren't set on fire as well."

"I am lucky! You saved my life!" Weiss barely had a chance to groan before Ruby wrapped her in an impromptu hug. "My hero!" she exclaimed, almost dreamily.

Her face flushed with what seemed to be anger as her scowl grew more prominent. "Ruby," she said in a low, dangerous tone, "get off of me." Blake could tell that the threat held no substance to it, yet the way it was stated seemed to strike some fear into the mind of Ruby.

The team leader let go of Weiss so that she could sit with her back straight and her hands in her lap. "Yes, Weiss." She sat calmly and without complaint. Weiss smirked.

"Whipped." The quip from the blonde could barely be heard through her barricade of arms. She lifted her head to rest her chin on her topmost forearm so that she could look at Weiss. She didn't say anything, merely choosing go look at the heiress. This lasting stare seemed to bore into Weiss in an irritatingly passive way to the point where the heiress was becoming visibly agitated. Blake had to assume that this was the beginning of Yang's plan.

Seconds passed and Weiss grew more and more annoyed. The cold glower coming from the heiress clashed with the abnormally vacant stare from the blonde. Blake observed the two in their silent battle—watched as Yang showed no signs of giving in and watched as Weiss looked to be slowly losing. Finally, Weiss lost. "What?" she snapped. Yang didn't so much as flinch at the response, choosing not to answer and continue her stare. Blake could see Weiss' jaw tighten as she ground her teeth. "What is it?" she asked again, this time acting relatively calmer than she had when she asked her previous question. Blake would have never guessed Yang to have the silent treatment at her arsenal for teasing others; however, she was wielding the skill well. Weiss sighed, conceding defeat. "What do you want, Yang?"

With her demeanor kept uncharacteristically aloof, Yang asked, "What were you yelling at my sister about in front of all those people?"

Weiss ground her teeth again. "I don't think that's any of your business." She now assumed a compliant and fearful posture, similar to the one that Ruby had.

Yang's eyebrows raised as she hummed an introspective noise. "I think it is my business. First of all, she's my sister." Yang's look hadn't changed and yet Weiss fidgeted. "Second, she's my teammate. I want to know what's going on." Now it was Weiss' turn to remain quiet, though it was not her conscious decision to do so. Yang had kept a neutral visage during her silence. Weiss, however, shifted between looking scared and unsure. "Weiss, I'm not mad at you and I won't be if you tell me what happened. But if you don't tell me soon, then I will be mad."

Weiss looked back to the blonde with an indignantly furious expression, face glowing bright red and glaring at Yang for only a second before crossing her arms and turning her head to the wall beside her. "Fine," she huffed. However, this was not followed by any explanation.

"Well?" Yang asked expectantly.

There was a low, growling noise that came from Weiss as she looked down at the table, not meeting the eyes of anyone else in the group. Ruby made an attempt to look like she was focused on her milkshake, but in reality, she watched Weiss out of the corner of her eye. Weiss mumbled something almost inaudible and Ruby suddenly became much more interested in the drink. Blake could see a smirk appear on Yang's face for a moment before it was concealed behind the odd mask of stoicism. Her head raised from its resting place of her arms and moved over the table, closer to Weiss. "What'd you say?" The question was of genuine intrigue rather than one intended to be used to gloat over newly acquired information.

The heiress' glare returned in full force with her face being a shade of red never before seen on her icy visage. However, this glare wasn't sent towards Yang; rather, it was Blake that received the look. More specifically, Weiss looked between Blake's eyes and her bow. The heiress did not have the courage to say it again, so she wanted Blake to repeat it. Blake had been able to hear what Weiss mumbled and was confused as to why she couldn't repeat it. Nonetheless, between Weiss' pleading glare and the questioning gaze of Yang now directed at her, Blake was unable to ignore the request. "She said Ruby tried to hold her hand."

Everybody at the table—with the exception of Blake—reacted quickly to the statement. Ruby stared wide-eyed at Blake before pulling her cloak's hood over her head and placing her face on the table. Weiss went back to looking at the table's edge closest to her. Yang's attention jumped between Ruby and Weiss, her calm expression replaced by apparent confusion. "Is that it?" She almost sounded offended. The act of Weiss looking further down in embarrassment gave Yang her answer, causing the blonde to burst out laughing. Blake smirked while Ruby and Weiss looked up to the guffawing girl. Her head had come to rest in her arms again, this time in an attempt to mute her laughter that had drawn the attention of the other patrons of the restaurant.

"You!" She couldn't get the rest of her exclamation out before she laughed herself into incoherency. She was crying now, causing Blake to smile slightly. The admission of Weiss, albeit embarrassing to her, was a fairly harmless revelation that Blake found humorous. However, what she found even more humorous was the fact that Yang's façade had broken and her plan had worked. "That's it?" she cried, causing Weiss to glare at her. She looked to Ruby. "You held her hand?" She fell into another bout of laughter when Ruby pulled her hood tighter over her head. "Oh my God," she wheezed, "you two are perfect for each other!"

It was hard for Blake to not laugh, but she persevered. After the events of the day, the concept of holding hands had become commonplace and to be expected, yet the occurrence seemed to be anything but to the heiress. Unfortunately for her, Yang was not in a state of mind where she could respect the relative awkwardness of the action and thusly laughed at her for it. Blake placed a hand on the shoulder blanketed in blonde hair and looked at Weiss. "I'm sorry, Weiss." To emphasize what she was sorry about, she tilted her head towards her partner. At this, Weiss relaxed but Blake continued. "However, what you did to Ruby was wrong. You yelled at her in front of an audience because she tried to hold your hand. That might have been a little much." The blush on Weiss' face faded away while she frowned rather than scowled. "I think she deserves an apology."

Oppositional pride made itself evident. "But she tried to touch me in front of all of those people." Blake hardened her grip on Yang's shoulder, stifling the giggles coming from the blonde. "What if someone saw? I could have lost credibility; not only here but around the kingdom. I have values to uphold—values of the Schnee family and the Schnee Dust Company. I can't be seen holding anyone's hands, much less…" She paused and brought her voice down to a level that it could almost be considered a whisper. "Another girl."

"Weiss," Blake pleaded, "you're not the only one who was affected. How do you think Ruby felt when you yelled at her in front of all of those people?" Weiss' eyes widened for a moment before she shut them, seemingly trying to separate herself from the conversation. "You're also not the only one with a reputation to uphold. Ruby's lived here for most of her life. How do you think the people here reacted when they saw her being yelled at? Maybe not all of the people in the crowd knew her, but rumors spread quickly." Though Weiss' eyes were still closed, she managed to make it look as though they closed tighter, causing her face to scrunch in pain. "A simple slap on the wrist would have sufficed."

Yang lifted her head from her arms again, watching Weiss expectantly alongside Blake. The pained expression on the heiress' face did not alter and she showed no signs of giving in. Neither of the two spectators noticed the fourth member of the team and how she reacted. "Weiss," they heard her say, causing all three other girls' attentions to turn on her. "Don't worry about it. Nobody will remember it anyway. And if they do, I don't care. That, and I don't really feel bad about what you said anymore. So, no harm done!" She smiled at Blake. "Thanks," she said simply. Blake smiled back and nodded, giving a nonverbal "You're welcome."

Weiss' pained expression disappeared as she rubbed the bridge of nose. "Ruby," she sighed, choosing her words carefully. Blake expected some sort of sincere apology and reconciliation. However, all Weiss said was, "You dunce." The three other girls smiled. Blake was content with this sort of response; it meant that Weiss wasn't going to feel too much compunction for what she had done and was not going to remain on the subject. It also meant Weiss was back to normal and, on some level, had come to terms with the situation.

With Yang's plan having been completed and the team having calmed down for the most part, a small period of peace occurred at the table. That is, it could only occur when it was only those four at the table. Muted, rhythmic sounds came from behind Blake, standing out from the droning conversation of the patrons. Blake could hear it pretty early on, but she was surprised to find Yang's shoulder and hair heating up before she heard the sounds. It was the waiter; she could smell the food. Blake pulled on Yang's shoulder to get her attention. She gave the blonde a warning look which was returned with an eye-roll.

A stand was set before their table and the tray placed atop it. The smiling waiter that Yang despised stood there, smiling. With his same happy and confident expression, he named off the dishes as he served them to their respective recipients. The only ones at the table who thanked him were Ruby and Blake. Even with Blake's previous warning, Yang sent a heated glare in the most literal of senses at the back of the waiter's head. Blake had to admit, the protectiveness was sweet even if it might have been a bit excessive.

As soon as the waiter was gone from the immediate area, the four began to eat. Conversation transitioned away from Ruby and Weiss' incident in the square to how Blake and Yang's day went. This sparked a fervor in the exuberant girl who quickly and idealistically regaled the two on their adventures in the bookstore and the game shop. Blake was thankful that she replaced the part of her overreacting to her new title of girlfriend with a tale of Blake dragging a bored Yang through the aisles for hours on end. Fortunately, all that Ruby took away from the two stories was the fact that Yang bought a video game. The excitement radiating off of the two caused Blake to naturally smile and Weiss' countenance to soften.

From time to time, Weiss could be seen correcting Ruby's table manners, not with openly severe warnings or passive-aggressive remarks, but with relatively amicable teachings, sometimes even by example. From Blake's perspective, the incursions were barely noticeable and would be otherwise overlooked. She figured that this was Weiss' way of apologizing.

Blake looked to the young woman sitting beside her. Seeing her bright smile and the positive effect she was having on Ruby and Weiss brought only one thought to Blake's mind: she was lucky—more so than she originally thought she would be when she could only imagine what a relationship between herself and Yang would be like. She was able to turn Ruby's fear and trepidation into laughter and mirth as well as Weiss' outright anger into her regular calm annoyance all due to a purchase she had made not a few hours earlier. On top of that, she was able to soothe Blake back into a logical state of mind after her unexpected outburst. Blake smiled, not at the joke Yang was now telling, but at her own internal joke and observation. Yang had saved the day and Blake was proud—could be proud because Yang had said "Yes" and saved her day.

* * *

The starry night sky burned at the edges, the last rays of the set sun casting an orange glow on the horizon of the otherwise dark violet atmosphere. Shadowy trees stood still on the edge of the world while fence posts and the occasional building zoomed by Blake's vision. She quietly watched the scene unfold before her, choosing to idly rest her head against the warm shoulder of her girlfriend. Time had become indefinable, feeling as though it was dragging with the lack of action or conversation and feeling as though it was flying by with the distance they covered. In her zoned-out state, she could only partially feel Yang's fingers rubbing against her own. She had to make a decision whether to suppress a smile or to suppress a yawn. In the end, she chose to smile. She was tired and could tell the others were as well, yet she didn't want to be the one to draw attention to the fact.

Weiss and Ruby weren't ignoring each other as much as they were comfortably sitting near each other without arguing or even talking. Weiss had an almost imperceptibly disgusted scowl that only worsened whenever her eyes fell upon Ruby. Blake had seen that sort of scowl before and knew that it was seldom exacerbated by an external conflict. Ruby, however, had no such problem, staring past Blake and Yang at the bright white moon on the opposite horizon with a reminiscent smile.

It was late now and the group was only a small distance away from the sisters' residence. It had been a long day with the intermittent periods of distress coupled with the overall elation caused by the newly formed relationship and the events that spawned from it. The emotional rollercoaster of happiness and pain hadn't relented for even a moment, leaving the Faunus exhausted but nevertheless content. She absentmindedly squeezed Yang's hand, causing the blonde to close the miniscule distance left between them as they sat. Blake rested her head against the shoulder of the warm figure as she anticipated the moment she could return to her bed and return to a familiar pace that she had found comfort in during her time at Beacon. To end the day with but a single chapter of a book—it didn't matter which at this point—would solidify this day as being one of the best days Blake had ever experienced. There was a distinct possibility that this day could not have been one of the best days, but perhaps _the_ definitive best day she had ever had the pleasure of having.

The thought of ending the day with her previous routine brought forth a frightening thought. The plan reminded her that the final result would be the end of the day. Be it childlike sentimentality or a nagging need to spend more time with Yang, Blake did not want to see the day end. She leaned closer against Yang in a futile attempt to slow down time. She knew it was irrational but she didn't care. The day was perfect and she had slept in; it could last a bit longer.

Unfortunately, she felt the transition from the smooth pavement of the road to the rough dirt of the path up to the house with the vibrations of the car. This shook her from her dazed state and caused her to unwittingly frown. However, the tightening of the hug that Yang held her in reversed this effect. She looked to find Yang smiling down at her, her tiredness only just noticeable. Blake did her best to give the blonde a smile that told her that she was doing a good job in staying awake before watching the shadow of the house come into view from the opposite window.

The limousine rolled to a stop and almost immediately, the driver's door could be heard opening. The four sat in fatigued silence as they simply listened to the footsteps on gravel that traveled to Ruby and Weiss' door. Before the driver could open the door, the lights inside of the cabin dimmed due to the car apparently being turned off. For a moment, the group was shrouded in shadows, only able to make out the person sitting beside them. Moonlight flooded the interior of the vehicle as the door opened. However, Blake didn't need this illumination to know that Yang had kept her gaze trained on her. The stare stayed that way even as Weiss and Ruby exited and made their way up to the house.

Yang wouldn't let go and Blake didn't want to move. Unfortunately for the both of them, the thought of the other becoming uncomfortable due to the lack of movement for an extended period of time forced the two to move on their own accords. Blake exited first and stopped just beside the door of the car to wait for Yang. As soon as the blonde emerged, Blake found her hand captured in a warm embrace. Before she could be dragged off towards the house, she gave the driver a small smile and short bow before she allowed herself to be whisked away. Just as they turned to head towards the house, Blake could see the front door closing and a red cloak only just making it inside. Seeing this, Yang slowed her pace and began looking over her shoulder at the limousine every few seconds. Even with the curious glances behind her, the blonde was able to take the steps up to the porch two at a time—an amount still manageable for a weary Blake.

The crushing sound of gravel from behind caused Yang to stop completely as she watched the car drive away. As soon as it was well on its way down the driveway, she turned to Blake who stared bemusedly at her. "Now that we're alone," she drawled, causing the Faunus to roll her eyes at what she thought was going to be a joke. "And now that you've walked me up to my front door…" She let her sentence trail off, allowing Blake to realize that Yang on some level wasn't joking. Before Yang could say anything more, Blake wrapped her in a hug, albeit one that wasn't purely intended to be affectionate but more so preemptive than anything else. Even if the hug was to cut Yang off from making any more suggestions that Blake had only experienced in some of her books or in a few movies, it didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the warm presence before her. Yang hugged back and chuckled into Blake's neck. "So, I'm guessing a kiss is out of the question?"

"It's only been a day, Yang. Give it time." Another reason why she chose to hug Yang was to hide the inevitable blush that would come to her face whenever Yang chose to mention her plan.

"Fine," she sighed in a faux exasperated tone.

At this, the two parted, if only so that they could gaze into each other's eyes. Having had enough time to compose herself and collect her thoughts within the hold, Blake found herself somewhat apologetic for not being willing to seal their first date with a kiss. "I had fun today." she smiled as she watched the corners of Yang's lips rise to one of her own. "Thanks for inviting me to stay with you and Ruby this summer. I don't think I've had a chance to say that since I've arrived, but I feel like it would be right to say it now. Thank you, Yang, for everything." There were a few moments' pause with nothing happened between the two. Blake had tried to muster the courage to kiss Yang, but she couldn't do it, leaving the two standing in a comfortably awkward silence.

That is, it was silent until Yang caught on to Blake's trepidation. Quickly, she began, "Don't mention it. I should be thanking you for coming. If you stayed at Beacon, I don't know what I would have done besides tease Ruby and the princess by myself. Thanks for being my partner-in-crime." Blake shook her head, trying and failing to suppress a small laugh. "And Blake?" This brought her attention back to the lilac eyes before her. "Thanks for asking me." Yang pulled her into a crushingly tight hug. Blake could tolerate it; she figured it was Yang's way of compensating for her hesitation.

Feeling empowered and happy from the contact, Blake attempted to hug back as hard as she could. It was a trivial effort for Yang did not so much as flinch at the exerted pressure, but it felt right. The two stood like this for a few moments, basking in the glow of the moon and the warmth of one another. It wasn't until new lights, not of the sky or the city on the horizon, but of the house's porch, turned on suddenly. This broke up the embrace, causing Blake to look down at her hands folded in front of her and Yang to rub the back of her neck sheepishly. "So, uh, I guess we go inside now?" Yang laughed nervously as she spoke. "I've never really dated someone who shared the same house as me."

Blake would have found the fact that she wasn't Yang's first date to be off-putting had she not found her bumbling expression cute. She shook her head, smiling before she grabbed a hold of Yang's wrist. "Come on," she said as she opened the door and pulled the blonde through.

"That sounded weird, didn't it?" Yang couldn't keep up with Blake's pace, having to awkwardly scrutinize her own statements in an attempt to sound at least marginally composed. "I mean, it's not really normal for someone to date someone who's in the same house as them—not that I don't like it. It just isn't really something people usually do. And I'm not saying that I've dated a lot of people—I promise!"

"Yang." Blake had stopped, leaving the two standing in the hall between their rooms. She doubted that the blonde realized how far they had travelled as she gave her excuses. She thought the action was funny if not admirable. However, she knew that the blonde's fatigue played a large factor in the apologies. "It's alright," she said softly. "None of this is really 'normal,' so why draw attention to it? Saying the situation is weird is the only thing that could make it weird between us."

Yang stared at her for a moment, brows furrowed at the observation. "Blake, it's late. I heard what you said but didn't understand a word of it. Can we hold off on the smart stuff until tomorrow?"

Blake smiled. "Sure." She chose to give her a quick hug and said, "Have a good night."

This action turned out to be a mistake as Yang returned the hug fiercely. "But I'm not tired," she whined. Blake tried to escape from the grasp, but much to her dismay, Yang was stronger. "I just wanna spend more time with you. Please?"

She sounded like a child, but Blake had to admit, the affection was having a positive effect on her. "You invited me to spend the summer with you, remember?" Though her voice was muffled by the jacket which her face had been buried in, she felt Yang tense for a moment before relaxing and releasing her hold.

"Fine," she sighed. "Just promise you'll be here in the morning." This was an odd request, but Blake attributed it to the delirium of Yang's lack of sleep.

Still, she smiled. "Don't worry, I will. Have a good night."

Yang hugged tighter for a moment as she returned, "Good night, kitten." After saying this, she broke away from the embrace and gave Blake a sad and tired look. Blake gave her a soft smile back and, due to her not knowing how to proceed any less awkwardly, bowed her head slightly before turning to her room. Yang didn't seem too distressed by this as she ambled into her own room, letting momentum close her door as she pushed it shut.

As soon as Blake was in her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, letting out a relieved sigh. What a day it had been. Not only did she garner the courage to ask Yang out, she had said "yes." It had been perfect—something out of a romance novel. Yang had whisked her away to a secluded spot in the middle of a forest, let herself become unguarded and vulnerable, and had accepted Blake's offer. It had been followed up by her first official date, and, despite all of the pain of memories and arguments between group members, it had gone perfectly. To say that she felt accomplished would be an understatement; she felt elated and confident and hopeful and the only way she could express this was through the reflective sigh as she leaned against the door.

As soon as she was sure that she was grounded in reality and not a victim of some cruel, hyper-realistic dream, she moved towards her bed, intent on changing into her pajamas and finishing out the day with a chapter of a novel. She figured that if the day had already been perfect, she should end the day on a high note rather than on the awkward farewell she had given Yang. She wasn't excited about the end of the day that had been so good to her, but she understood it was an inevitability and thusly resigned to relaxing and getting back into her regular routine.

* * *

Whether it was the length of the chapter or her unfocused mindset, Blake was unable to get through the section of the novel as quickly as she would have liked. She had lost interest in the content, a greater story relentlessly replaying in her mind. That is why, when there was a soft rapping at the door, Blake was not surprised too much. If anything, the novel had woken her up again, returning her not to the routine of reading, but back to her nocturnal habits. Looking at the clock, she knew that it was too late to audibly permit entry. She had closed her book and readied herself to stand when the clicking noise of the doorknob ceased the action.

She had expected Yang. Rather, she hoped that it would have been Yang, if only to spend a few more seconds with her. However, it was Ruby who entered, dressed in her pajamas and adorning an expression that was more serious than Blake had ever seen on the girl. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting," she said, strangely diplomatic for regular personality.

"Not at all." Blake set the book to her side and rested her hands atop her blanketed lap. ""What are you doing up so late?"

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck, losing her stoic expression for a second as she laughed sheepishly. "Well, Weiss sort of kicked me out so she could change."

"She kicked you out of your own room?"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "_Weiss_ kicked me out of my room. I'm not going to argue with her if it comes between her and her clothes."

Blake gave a small laugh. "Fair enough; that's as good a reason as any." She let silence descend on the both of them as they calmed. She could guess that from the serious demeanor Ruby had held when she entered that the team leader had something she needed to speak to her about. When she saw that Ruby had recomposed herself, she asked, "Is there something you needed?"

The young girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath before looking Blake in the eyes. "Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about. It's about you and my sister." Blake was surprised; this was turning out to be one of a few instances where Ruby's intermittent maturity showed through. Blake sat back against her pillows and regarded the girl before her. "Blake, I trust you as a teammate and a friend and everything, but there's something I need to be sure of. I need you to promise me something."

"Sure; what do you need?" Normally, the idea of accepting an agreement before knowing the conditions went against Blake's better judgment. However, between the subject of her new relationship and the cautious sincerity in Ruby's tone, it was hard not for her to accept.

"I need you to promise me that you won't hurt my sister. She's the only one I have left to really call family and if something happened to her, I don't know what I'd do. I don't mean don't hurt her physically; we're all training to be Huntresses, it's probably going to happen anyways. I need you to promise me that you won't break her heart. I can tell you mean a lot to her and that she means a lot to you, but she's been through too many bad experiences and I don't want it to happen again." Ruby gave Blake a pleading look, silently asking the Faunus to accept. "Can you promise me that?"

The plea raised more questions than it should have. Nevertheless, Blake made it a point to remember some of the points made in the explanation and learn more about them at a later date. For now, she scanned the girl before her. Her posture was straight and her eyes were held a conviction that rarely could be seen on someone who wasn't truly sympathetic. She instinctually wanted to say yes, but the overly logical, often remorseful part of her mind warned against this quick response.

Whether or not this promise would be made was pivotal for both girls. Blake saw this question not only as caring protectiveness on the part of one sister for another, but as an agreement that could have lasting effects. She saw this as Ruby asking whether or not she would commit herself to Yang, to have the relationship last and to have it not be a throwaway experience. Ruby was asking if Blake was willing to take a leap of faith into the unpredictable depth of a relationship. Thoughts of her time in the White Fang clouded her mind, reminding her of the actions she had taken against humans and told her that this sort of relationship would never work out. These thoughts were swept to the side with the experiences of the day. Visions of Yang's smile, humor, and touch made the decision all the easier.

"Ruby, I promise you that I will take care of your sister. As both her partner and her girlfriend, I will do my best to keep her out of harm's way. There's no need to worry. She has my back and I've got hers." Blake finished this with a smile, proud at her own words. Ruby let out a large sigh of relief, presumably due to her being able to be her regular self again, before returning with a warm smile of her own. "Yang's pretty lucky to have you as a sister. I've never seen you so protective before."

The grateful, sentimental demeanor she held vanished as she placed her hands on her hips in a triumphant pose. "Yeah, I am pretty great, aren't I?"

Blake's bow twitched. "Yeah, pretty great at making Weiss angry."

Ruby looked as though she was about to question this quip until the two could hear a door opening and Weiss yelling throughout the house, "Ruby! Where are you, you dolt? It's late and you need to go to sleep!" Blake smirked as Ruby's eyes widened in fear. The muted and slurred "Shut up" from Yang's room caused Blake to giggle unabashedly.

Ruby nervously chuckled. "Duty calls. 'Night."

"Good night, Ruby." Blake waited until Ruby had left her room and closed the door to turn off the light on her nightstand. She figured that her thoughts were too preoccupied to truly focus on her novel, so she set it aside on the nightstand. Now she was left alone in the darkness, having only her thoughts left to keep her company. The memories of the day and her time with Yang were still fresh in her mind, but the promise took priority over all else. She had agreed to remain by Yang's side and to protect her not only physically, but emotionally as well. She smiled, thinking that she wouldn't have it any other way. Sure, it was a great deal of responsibility entrusted to her, but the fact that she was the one trusted with it made it worthwhile.

She still sat up, her finger having an odd, anxious, tapping movement every few seconds. They trusted her—not only with their lives, but with those precious to them as well. She saw Ruby's permission to date her sister as a defining moment of acceptance amongst the group. Her hand stopped its tapping and made its way up to her head. Not only had they accepted her for being a Faunus, they were more than okay with her new relationship with Yang. She grabbed one end of the silken ribbon. Now Ruby trusted her with the wellbeing of the one individual decisively more important than her weapon. Perhaps she was being slightly too sentimental, but she saw this action as acceptance not only into a team of friends, but into a family. She pulled on the ribbon, letting her Faunus ears breathe in the open air.

She looked at the black fabric. Would she really need it around the others? She set it on top of her book. She decided that she would, in time, stray from using the fabric, but she would slowly introduce the others to the concept of her not wearing the bow. She could only stand the cat jokes so much, so she believed that the only way to keep these at bay was by gradually making her Faunus traits a pedestrian sight rather than a surprising one that could elicit jokes. They had shown her their trust; she figured that it was time to show the team that she trusted them as well.

She gazed blankly at the ceiling as she reclined to a supine position, her mind reminiscing upon all things Yang as she slowly drifted off to sleep. She remembered the time in the forest, the ride to and from the park on the bike, the comforting embrace in the bookstore café, and the genial conversation at the restaurant. In every memory was Yang's sunny smile, directed solely at her. Blake was genuinely happy; not only had she found someone who cared for her so readily, she had found that her accepting friends had become more of a surrogate family. No longer did this house on the outskirts of the city of Vale feel like just a foreign building in which she was to be confined for the most part during her summer break. In its stead was a warm, comfortable place that could contain supportive teammates, the promise of extraordinary times, and the one person in her life that could cause an indestructible smile to appear on her face at something as fleeting as a memory. Blake could fall asleep easily, allowing the day to end for her knowing that she had found a home.

* * *

When I said that I was happy with how this chapter turned out at the beginning author's note, I should have included an asterisk next to that claim. I am entirely happy with everything in this chapter except one scene in particular. I am on the fence about the dinner scene. I have always found writing meal scenes to be difficult, especially dinners with important subject matter being covered. I don't find it difficult due to the conversation aspect, but due to the myriad of stimuli that present themselves within a restaurant. Between crowds, noisy patrons, servers, quality of food, the act of eating, variations in the environment (such as temperature changing or tables being rearranged), and describing the locale, I tend to feel somewhat overwhelmed. I feel that the dinner scene in this chapter turned out fairly well but I doubt I am going to do many more meal scenes with four characters. There is a reason why there is a break in time in the middle of the meal, after all.

I would also like to note that this chapter acts as the end of the series of chapters covering the group's first trip to Vale. Chapters after this will begin sometime after the end of this chapter. Time will not progress too far ahead at first as that would take away from the importance of the events in the first five chapters. If I was reading a story myself, I would feel robbed if a writer stays with the characters in pseudo-real time for the first few chapters before jumping weeks ahead in the plot. I will just say that chapter six begins only a few days after chapter five. Expect chapters to be grouped in similar fashion to how chapters two through five were. In saying this, I mean that I may write a few chapters in sequence that take place immediately after each other.

Thank you all for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting, or anything that exhibits even the slightest of interest for _Valence_. Seriously, I am still astounded by the support I've received for this story. Stay safe and stay tuned.


	6. Chapter 6: Illumination

I didn't quite expect the amount of positivity shown for chapter five. Not that I'm complaining—I just felt as though it would simply be tolerated, not seemingly enjoyed. Seriously, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed. I may not be the best at sending personal thank-you private messages (honestly, I've been too anxious to for the most part), but know that I read them all and weigh the opinions and preferences against my own quality checks in the revision process. I feel like I'm making this "thankfulness" thing old and redundant, but it needs to be said. You have been absolutely wonderful in your support. Thank you.

Before I began writing this chapter, I read a short story called, "Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Colby," by Donald Barthelme. If anyone enjoys dark or matter-of-fact humor, I would suggest reading it somewhere online; it's not too long, spanning only about 1,500 words. Admittedly, I may have allowed the story to influence the beginning scene of this chapter—not through tone or diction, but through the lengths I went to describe something otherwise trivial. I hope the description isn't too off-putting.

Regardless, this is chapter six of _Valence_.

* * *

Chapter 6: Illumination

The ambient sunlight, having snaked its way through the partially closed blinds of the television room, made reading a more accessible experience for the young Faunus. Rather, it was due to the combination of the sufficient lighting that illuminated the pages just enough so that her eyes wouldn't hurt and the figure on which she rested her legs that she was able to focus on the plot of the book, her mind now being at ease with the warm presence near her. It had been two days since she last attempted to read, having found herself at that specific juncture unable to distract her thoughts from the blonde that now sat beside her.

It wasn't necessarily a quiet scene that occurred within the room due to Yang being thoroughly engrossed in her recent software purchase. However, Blake did not mind. She found the energy given off by the blonde to be calming in a peculiar way, having become an accepted part of the exuberant girl's personality since she relaxed to the notion of having exuberant youth as both a partner and significant other. Despite the enthused motions and heated insults thrown at the on-screen characters coming from Yang, Blake was able to peacefully read her novel, lying sideways on the loveseat of the couch with her legs propped on the blonde's lap. It truly felt like a break now. Blake, having opted for short socks to compliment her normal attire for the time being, felt a breeze from the home's air conditioning system chill her legging-less legs. The feeling didn't bother her much, though; she was thoroughly warmed by her girlfriend's radiant aura.

Every once in a while, Yang would sigh and groan at the happenings of her game. Because the annoyance was nothing immediately serious, Blake didn't bother to intervene, choosing to immerse herself in her own form of entertainment: a mix of written word and situational humor exhibited by the girl sitting before her. She found the gestures at least mildly funny. As it was, Yang was regularly animated, and with the theatric display of emotion she was showing, Blake couldn't help but show her mirth. At times, however, she found her appreciation of Yang's ire to be troubling.

There were multiple instances in which Blake felt that the annoyance crossed over into legitimate anger. The fact that she found these scenes humorous was grating on a moral level. She was admittedly having a hard time differentiating between Yang's moments of competitive annoyance and restrained fury. Were it the prior, she would have no qualms about letting the blonde be, but it was the thought that the latter existed and was going unseen that was beginning to distract her from the book. The promise she had made to Ruby still resonated in her mind. She had made it a top priority to keep Yang's emotions in mind and keep them from leaning towards the negative extremes.

The difficulty she had in reading Yang's emotions was stressful in and of itself, causing her to frequently question whether or not she was missing any signs of distress. So far, she could only tell when Yang was tired and that was only due to the blatancy of her expressions when she was fatigued. Even a simple smile could have an ambiguous meaning. As she watched the blonde and not her book, she began seeing the irritation as a sign of Yang becoming upset. She knew these interpretations were probably not true, but it was all she could think about since she had made the promise.

Blake looked down at her novel, now finding the words muddled and uninteresting. She sighed as she closed it; somehow, she had convinced herself that reading was not relaxing right now. She looked at the television screen, seeing the images and how they moved but not comprehending much of it. What she could interpret from the fast-moving gameplay was the intermittent death screen that seemed to trigger Yang's frustration. With her attention now fully focused on her girlfriend, Blake could see that she was not as angry as she had originally appeared to be. There was a confident smirk in place that only vanished for a moment when her character died. Otherwise, she seemed to be enjoying herself. Blake smiled at this, thankful that she had been wrong in her assumptions, yet a bit annoyed at not being able to read her girlfriend's emotions.

She sighed, shaking the thoughts off. "Is it holding up to your expectations?" She was genuinely curious; the game had been on her radar that had been fairly nonexistent since she last played a video game. Now that technology had changed and storytelling within the medium had improved, she found the transition into the newer era of home entertainment to be somewhat jarring in its quality.

A quick, sidelong smile was all Yang could manage before returning her gaze to the screen. "I'm liking it, it's just a little hard. Probably because of all the practice I wasn't able to get at Beacon." Her character died again, causing the blonde to close her eyes for a moment before returning her sight to her actions with her competitive smirk widened. "Don't worry, I've got this."

"I bet you do." Blake found Yang's expectation for her to be equally as immersed in the action of the game to be endearing. In a small way, Yang's attempt at including her in the on-screen occurrences made Blake feel as though she was wanted. It felt like the blonde was trying to bring her into an activity that the both of them could enjoy and she appreciated this. Blake looked back to the screen, making an active attempt to interpret what was going on. It didn't take too long for her understand the general movements, having adjusted to the initially jarring graphics. The plot however, was a different matter. All she could tell as to what was occurring was that a cat wearing a diaper was inside an industrial setting, taking fire from whoever the token enemy militia was. It wasn't until the area was cleared and the screen faded to black that Yang became still and silent and Blake found a way to understand the plot.

A cutscene was occurring, the camera having switched from a very close over-the-shoulder view to frequently changing angles that served to make the narrative all the more intense. Blake was surprised to find that the voice actor for the cat was a deep, gruff, male voice that contradicted the aesthetics of the character while being able to further the importance of the mission at hand. The cat and another character, dressed in form-fitting black armor, were discussing why they were at what was apparently an enemy base. The words "bomb", "moon", and "prototype" as well as the phrase "time is running out" were used in abundance. If one were to take these repeated plot points as the entirety of the story, it would seem cliché. However, with the deliverance of the lines and the animation of the characters, the game seemed anything but.

The cutscene ended similarly to how it began, transitioning smoothly into enveloping action. Blake couldn't help but smile at seeing Yang digest the story that was being thrown at her in between periods of fast-paced action. She doubted she would have gotten the subtle allusions to the legend of Creation, but she could give her a break; there was a very tense, very focused narrative being told that would normally overwhelm the average consumer. To Yang's credit, she seemed to stay immersed, often nodding along when orders were given and scowling when the enemy was talked about. "I wasn't expecting it to be this good. I guess the review was right," Blake mused.

Yang smirked, not removing her eyes from the screen as she systematically maneuvered the controller to her favor. "So, you finally found something more interesting than your book, huh?"

"Actually, for the time being, yes." Blake could see how she might have made this seem suggestive with her gaze locked onto the girl sitting before, but she honestly found the game to be gripping.

Yang sighed as she paused the game. As she looked over to her girlfriend, she held an annoyed stare. "Look…It's kinda hard to tease you if what I'm making fun of doesn't bother you."

Blake smirked. "And?"

"Jerk." Yang frowned.

"You're the one trying to make fun of me. I'm simply being friendly." She kept her smirk, looking otherwise deadpan.

Yang groaned. "Fine, I guess you're not that much of a jerk."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "I think I heard an insult still in there."

The blonde's frown was replaced with a grin. "I have to tease you somehow," was all she said before resuming the game. Her grin remained steady until her character died only seconds into the level. As soon as she rounded the first corner, she was assaulted with unrelenting gunfire and explosive ordnance. The end result was a gradual decline of the sunny attitude as the number of times she had to repeat the level increased. Blake was finding the constant, low growling coming from the blonde funny, up until she saw her eyes turn red. "Okay! That's it! I'm done! This game's rigged!"

At this outburst, Blake realized that her legs that had been resting upon Yang's lap were heating up. She was having some trouble controlling the panic that had set in at the surprising sight, only just being able to quickly plan a course of action. The amused smirk she carried vanished in an instant as she sat up and removed her legs from Yang so that she could move closer to her side. "Yang," she tried to soothe, finding her hand hot to the touch. "Yang, it's alright. Just calm down." Unfortunately, she could not. Her fingers were turning white as she squeezed the controller in a death grip. Blake silently berated herself for not being able to calm her own partner down. Yang had helped her calm down; why couldn't she do the same? "It's only a game. Just take a break and it'll be alright."

"I'm not taking a break. I'll beat this game even if it kills me." Her conviction sounded very real and very delusional. Blake figured words wouldn't be the best approach, so she moved closer to the blonde and placed both of her hands atop those on the controller, braving the heat. After a few seconds, Yang relaxed her grip, if only slightly. Blake took this as an opportunity to move closer, finding Yang's breathing rapid and harsh. She wrapped an arm over the blonde's opposite shoulder and pulled her close, finding that because Yang lacked her leather jacket, the uncontrolled heat could be felt on her arms as well.

For a few very long seconds, Yang continued to seethe at the screen that inquired insultingly whether or not she was ready to respawn. Her body temperature only seemed to flare in this time, becoming hot enough that Blake was almost willing to let go. Before physical instinct could win over a conscious effort, Yang began to cool down. Slowly, her breathing settled and Blake was able to remove the controller from her hands. She quickly tossed it to the cushion beside them as she returned her full attention to Yang. She felt a pressure on the hand that Yang still held and squeezed back.

The audio of the game looped an annoying number of times due to the prolonged lack of action. There had been very few instances where Blake blinked, having been unable to remove her focus from the upset girl before her even for the smallest period of time. She couldn't—she had missed the signs of Yang's festering anger. There were no memories that could rationalize any signs of how it began, only the thought of her own mirth at seeing what was believed to be staged annoyance. She pulled Yang closer, sorry she couldn't have helped sooner. There was some resistance felt when moving the blonde, but overall, she had melted into her worried embrace. Blake didn't know what to say, being in the dark about how or why this happened and even about what to do. There was a time when she had helped Yang calm down before, but circumstances were different; at that time, she had been flying by wire and now Yang was suffering from a different emotion. What she needed was a knowledge she didn't have and could not be learned from any amount of studying. She tried the one motion that seemed to work back in the forest: rubbing Yang's arm slowly and softly, as not to startle her.

It seemed to work. Yang rested her head against the inside of Blake's shoulder and forced her eyes shut. The change in position caused Blake to move her ministrations to Yang's shoulder, incidentally brushing against blonde hair at the apex of her motion. There was a strong desire to run a hand through the golden tresses that was instantly fulfilled. Sparks visibly played across the mane, yet they could not harm Blake; as she touched them, an odd tingling sensation affected her hand. Nevertheless, the motions continued so that she could calm Yang down. She owed her and Ruby this.

The two remained like this for a few minutes until Yang finally sighed. "That game's hard." Blake could not suppress a smile at such a simple summarization of the reason for the outburst. She seemed to be fine—at least Blake hoped so for both Yang's sake and her own. She also hoped that this was a state she could benchmark as being "fine." She stopped moving her hand along Yang's shoulder, choosing to twirl a lock of flaxen hair around her finger. Yang sighed again. "Maybe I overreacted, huh?"

Blake tilted her head so that it rested on top of Yang's as she smirked. "Maybe. At least you were calmer than you usually are when you get that way."

Yang gave a short laugh. "Yeah, I guess so. Still, what am I going to do now? I don't think I can handle playing this game anymore but I still want to." She groaned playfully, "I think there's something wrong with me."

The twirling stopped as Blake thought of what could be done about Yang's impasse. It took her a moment to come to a conclusion that she was more than a little unsure about. Her idea was that if she shared in the pain, it would allow Yang's burden to be alleviated slightly. "Do you think I could try?"

She barely registered Yang's shoulder moving before the controller was placed on her lap. "Be my guest," she said without moving from her position under Blake's arm. Due to this position, Blake was unfortunately unable to reach the controller with the arm that was placed over her girlfriend. After a few futile attempts at trying to grip it at various elevations and distances, Yang moved away, much to Blake's chagrin. Instead of stepping away like Blake thought she was going to do, she changed her position so that she sat sideways on the couch with her legs resting on Blake's lap. "I can see why you like sitting like this. It's sorta comfy—for me anyways."

Blake simply smiled as she relaxed her arms on top of Yang's legs, finding the warmth both relaxing and distracting. It is to say that it was distracting in that the warmth was able to divert her thoughts away from her inability to perceive indications of Yang's emotions rather than distracting from her partner's recent agitation. The warmth seemed to tell her that Yang was alright. Blake smiled back. "Okay, let's see how hard this really is." She was unsure in her abilities but she wouldn't show it. As she gripped the controller, she tried to recall what buttons correlated with which actions from games she had played in the past. The first action she figured out was that one of the buttons near the center of the controller resumed the game.

Instantly, she was in over her head. The next two actions she figured out were movement of the character and movement of the camera. She found the controls disorienting and unresponsive, causing her to unintentionally walk around the first corner into the enemy's line of fire. Her character died, causing the controller to vibrate. Neither of the two frowned. Blake watched the screen, still trying to comprehend what had happened. Yang told her, "Hey, that was about as good as I did. Try going for cover behind that wall. Also, if you press in the right stick, you'll sprint." The uncontrollable sticks had a third dimension to their movement? Blake tried pressing it down and found that a soft clicking noise was made.

She resumed the game and attempted to control her movement a little better. She found that her camera movements were slow and left much to be desired, but she felt she had the hang of moving her character on a horizontal plane. She truly began the level by pressing in the right thumbstick and moving forward. To both girls' surprises, the cat on the screen was able to bolt from the corner towards cover, dodging the bullets as she passed through their line of fire. On instinct, she tried pushing in the left thumbstick as well, causing the character to get low to the ground, fully utilizing the convenient steel-plated wall it stood next to. "Huh. What do you know? Kid's got talent." Instantly, a grenade landed behind the cover and exploded, killing the character and causing the controller to shake. "Okay, that was my fault. I jinxed it. Sorry." Yang rubbed the back of her neck.

"Don't worry about it," Blake said automatically. "I think I'm getting better at it. Do you have any more tips?"

Yang blinked. "Yeah." She seemed shocked. "Umm, right trigger to fire, left trigger to aim closer, and 'A' to jump." Blake took a second to process this information before nodding and resuming the game. She passed the corner, jumping over the line of fire and landed in a crouch behind cover. From there, she made her character jump over a few conveniently placed boxes to reach a catwalk, from which she began taking shots at the enemy. On accident, she pressed a button above the trigger, causing a grenade to be thrown that shattered the enemies' defenses. She picked off whatever enemies still remained until the immediate area was clear. "Woah," was all Yang could say.

Pausing the game, Blake looked to her gawking girlfriend. "What?" she asked, completely serious and knowing not why Yang's mouth hung open.

"What?" she parroted incredulously. "You got past the part I was struggling with like it was nothing. How'd you do that?"

Blake furrowed her brows. She didn't feel like she deserved this much praise for something like that. "I just didn't let them hit me?"

Yang's gaze cast downwards for a moment, her mouth forming a contemplative frown. "I guess running in close and meleeing them all doesn't always work."

This piqued Blake's interest. "You can physically hit enemies?"

A playful glare was sent her way. "Now you're just rubbing it in. You're good kid, just don't get cocky."

Blake rolled her eyes—the game didn't seem that hard. "I'll keep that in mind," she dismissed before returning to the game. The level went on for a couple of minutes with few instances of conflict and even fewer possibilities that Blake's character could have died. That is, the game had been simple enough for the fast-learning Faunus until she reached what she guessed was the final scene of the level. As soon as the cutscene entailing an inspirational speech by the protagonist intended more for himself than his partner ended, waves of enemy fire came at her character. She didn't have a second to react before she was instantly killed. She tried over and over again, each time getting slightly closer to the cover on either her left or her right, but never quite making it. Her grip on the controller increased with each death. The rumblings of the device seemed not to relent between the brief periods of her character being alive, causing her hands to become numb with the constant droning motion. With her temper being harder to keep under control, Blake found that her attempts at cover became shorter and shorter until she was immediately being killed at the start of the level.

Her golden eyes narrowed to slits and her frown fell to a malicious scowl. She kept quiet on the respawn screen, simply boring holes into the television screen. She was breathing heavily and infrequently. At the concerned calling of her name, Blake snapped. "What kind of developer would think that loading into the game and immediately dying would be fun? Seriously, this is absurd; I can't even move a foot before I have to start over. I know I'm a new player but this is ridiculous! What difficulty am I playing on?" She didn't even look at Yang, choosing to learn to despise every pixel of every letter of the word "respawn."

"Easy," Yang said meekly.

"Easy?" Blake growled. "How is this easy? I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say that there are fifty enemies shooting me as soon as I start. There's no way I'm supposed to get past them! So what am I supposed to do? Keep trying for the one time that the AI decides to accidentally mess up and let me get to cover? Then what? I'll just get a grenade thrown at me and then I'll have to restart again." She didn't realize the controller was slowly being pulled from her hands. "It's completely moronic for this developer to make a game difficult for the sake of being difficult. I mean, I'm not having fun anymore and you weren't having fun earlier, so why would they sacrifice fun for impenetrable difficulty?"

Yang had moved to sit close to her girlfriend, using her hand to bear the crushing grip that had previously been exerted on the controller. "I know it's unfair, but I don't know why." She turned off the television as she spoke, not letting the action get in the way of her meaning. "It's a hard game, but that's all it really is. It's just a game—just like you said." Blake was reluctantly pulled closer to Yang, her head being forced against the blonde's chest without being turned away from the blank screen. "You just need to take a breather and get back to it later. It'll be fine, just forget about the game for now."

While the majority of Blake's mind was in favor of continuing to angrily dissect the game for all its fatal errors, she still melted into the embrace and breathed easier, if only slightly. Now that the negative stimulation from the looping music and camera angles that had become associated with failure had been taken out of the equation, Blake was able to relax her thoughts in the silence. As she calmed herself, her negative thoughts against the game shifted to negative thoughts about herself. How was Yang able to calm her down so easily? The transition from passively furious to mildly aggravated happened so quickly. It was as though Yang was running through practiced motions formulated specifically for her. She hated to insult her girlfriend's intelligence, but she believed herself to be the more systematic of the two. How Yang had been able to read her emotions and deal with her anger so well was both baffling and frustrating.

Introspection was proven to be difficult when someone else talked. "You know, you speak really well when you're mad. It's kinda cute, actually." Blake had to force the blush that was forming to disappear. She was supposed to be upset with herself right now, not flattered by a compliment. "How about we do something else for now? It'll get our minds off of the game for a little bit."

There are two reasons why Blake did not answer. The first is that she thought of this as yet another time Yang could read her emotions while the inverse seemed impossible. Even hearing her voice was calming, causing Blake to become more envious instead of angrier. The second reason why Blake did not answer—rather, could not answer—was due to the fact that there was the sudden sound in the foyer of the door opening and multiple pairs of feet marching their way into the house. For only a moment, Blake was ready to combat whatever threat had entered until she realized that the sounds were harmless.

Despite Yang's protests that she wasn't calm enough and that she still seemed angry at the game, Blake escaped the otherwise comforting embrace so that she could look over the couch towards the foyer. Because a doorway obstructed a complete view of the scene, Blake was barely able to see what was occurring in the entryway. The first sight that indicated that anything was going on in the first place was one of Weiss' personal assistants carrying two bags towards the kitchen. He was followed by two more assistants, each carrying two bags of their own. One of the bags that the second assistant carried showed signs of where they had come from. The label from a loaf of bread peeked over the top, reminding Blake that Weiss had planned on shopping for groceries.

As for where Ruby was, the young girl trudged across the foyer carrying the combined amount carried by the three assistants. Even with her hearing focused on the young girl, Blake couldn't decipher Ruby's grumblings as she plodded along. She was followed by Weiss who barked orders and corrections, mostly about improving posture and attitude. The heiress did not carry any bags, already burdened by the supervisory role she had created. Her agitation reached a crescendo at the audible _thump_ of six grocery bags hitting the floor at once. Afterwards, a loud, exasperated sigh signaled the end to her nagging for the time being.

Blake was surprised at the listless manner in which the usually energetic Ruby sauntered into the living room. She seemed to have tuned everything else out, having ignored her sister's welcome and subsequent inquiry as to how her day went. She simply moved in front of an open cushion, paused, and then unceremoniously collapsed face-first into the seat. Blake's brows knitted in concern before she heard Ruby's muted observation. "Groan," she said. This eased a smile back onto Blake's face.

"Rough day, huh?" Yang was smirking knowingly. Blake mentally noted that she was able to definitively read two of Yang's states of mind: tired and teasing—at least, when it came to Yang dealing with her sister. An ambiguous grunt was all the energetic team leader could muster for a reply. "Well, you're going to have to get used to it. You're the one who invited her to spend the entire summer with you."

This caused Ruby's shoulders to shudder. She rolled over, staring blankly up at the stationary ceiling fan and groused, "I hate you."

"Oh, that isn't true. There's nothing to hate about me. I'd _never _take you shopping—I'm not that much of a monster. You're just upset because there's trouble in paradise."

Ruby sobbed comically, "I hate you 'cause you're right."

"Well," Yang said, adopting a smug expression and looking towards Blake. "I am pretty great, aren't I?"

Flippant and purposefully dismissive, Blake responded, "You're alright, I guess." This elicited an annoyed "Hey!" from Yang, but Blake continued talking, choosing to focus her unwavering attention on Ruby. "Ruby, if you don't mind me asking, what's going on between you and Weiss?"

With her arm draped piteously over her eyes, Ruby didn't seem to notice Yang drawing an invisible heart in the air with her fingers before Blake's glare ceased the action. She barely was able to begin with, "You see, I," before the sound of the front door closing resonated throughout the house. The audibly irked clicking of heeled boots moved closer to the trio and caused Ruby to make a whining noise. "She can explain better than I can," she quickly stated before pulling the cape of her cloak over her head in a futile attempt at camouflage.

Weiss marched in quickly, pinching the bridge of her nose so that she was unable to see the other occupants of the room before she started to speak. "Ruby, why did you run away when you still have a job to do?" When she released her exasperated hold, Weiss was able to see Blake and Yang sitting next to each other on the couch. They were sent a warning glare before she returned her leer to the terribly concealed girl. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself?"

Her response came in the form of Ruby pulling her legs up into the cover of her cloak. Now all that was left of the girl was a crimson ball of fabric that emitted a fearful whimper every so often. Blake had to nudge Yang with her elbow in order to stop the snickers that came from her. Scowling and with arms akimbo, Weiss growled, "Ruby, answer me." A frightened squeak and the tightening of the curled form was her only reply. "Answer me," she said in a dangerous, low voice.

"I didn't want to help." Ruby's statement was quick and muted, an attempt at allaying Weiss' wrath.

"I never would have guessed." Weiss could be seen grinding her teeth. Somehow, Blake was able to pick up on the indicators of her other teammates' emotions, just not Yang's. The blonde did not look ready to intervene should the situation turn awry; instead she watched in apparent mirth as her sister and Weiss had a humorously one-sided dialogue. "Now that you're sufficiently rested, you are going to get back in there and help."

"I don't want to." Even though the girl was a rising second year student at Beacon and even though she was, as of three months prior, sixteen years old, she still acted like a child. However, Blake wasn't too surprised, seeing as how Yang was much the same.

"Why not? I'm open to criticism, so out with it." The look she had on her face bordered on predatory, being that her eyes never left the immobile form and her frown never left her features.

At this, Ruby's head peeked out from behind the cape, her face defiant and complacent. "I'm too tired," she whined. "You made me carry six bags by myself. My arms hurt and I don't want to walk anymore."

Weiss shifted her stance so that she balanced away from Ruby, further adding to the disbelieving look on her face. "What did you expect was going to happen? You bought six bags worth of trash by yourself. You should be expected to carry in what you bought. Then you should be expected to put away anything you bought in its correct place once we return." She began tapping her foot. "You didn't put anything away."

"Neither did you!" Ruby was sitting up now, her face completely unobstructed by the cape. "You bought as much as I did and you didn't carry anything in." Weiss looked as though she was about to rebuke this, but Ruby continued. "You had your servants carry your bags and put everything away. You just watched and told us what to do! That's not fair. I had to carry everything in at once! Why couldn't they help? They could have made a few extra trips."

"First of all," Weiss shifted her stance once again, this time so she could tower over the sitting girl, "they are not servants. They are personal assistants employed by the Schnee Dust Company that I have contracted for the summer. Second, there has to be somebody to keep order or else everyone would drop their bags and run for the couch."

"Well, maybe people wouldn't run for the couch if they weren't being treated unfairly!" Ruby's gaze back at Weiss wavered consistently, her arguments being based on defense alone.

"Unfairly?" Weiss bellowed. Blake felt something nudge her side but she couldn't divert her attention from the spectacle of emotion that played out before her. "My logic makes perfect sense! You should be held accountable for what you buy. There's nothing unfair about that."

"It is unfair!" Ruby yelled back. Blake felt another nudge to her side. Yang was giving her a questioning look but she could not decipher what was being asked. She wouldn't be able to ask what it was yet since Ruby was still involved in her verbal battle. "You make everybody else follow your rules but you don't follow them yourself!"

The rest of Ruby's tirade seemed to mute itself with the third nudge of an elbow that came from the blonde. Blake turned to see that Yang was leaning closer, a worried expression on her face. "Hey," she whispered, "maybe we should leave these two alone. I don't want to intervene."

Blake quickly looked between those arguing and Yang before whispering back, "Aren't you going to stop Weiss from yelling at your sister?" Weiss seemed to be overzealous with her reprimands. What was worse was that Ruby was acting in much the same manner. Blake could only predict negativity as the end result of the argument.

Yang returned with a reassuring smile. "She needs to fight this one herself." Blake was about to object and question why Yang felt this way, but she was pulled off of the couch by the wrist. "C'mon; let's get out of here before they notice us gone." Blake had no choice but to let herself be pulled along. As they moved away from the couch, Yang lowered herself to pick up both of their pairs of shoes before briskly moving out of the living room, leaving behind the argument taking place therein.

Keeping her hushed tone for the possibility of the other two hearing her, Blake had to ask, "Where are we going?" They weren't headed to the kitchen or either of their rooms. Instead, the front door came into view and she could only guess that they were headed to it.

"You'll see," Yang said simply. This forced Blake's expression into that of a disgruntled frown. Nonetheless, she complied, following the blonde into the foyer and stopping with her right before the door where she dropped their shoes. Blake watched with the faintest of envy as her girlfriend slid on the sneakers that she had apparently owned but did not bring with her to Beacon. Yang had explained that because they were only relaxing at home, she didn't feel the need to wear her boots. Fortunately for her, she had the luxury of a spare set of shoes that just so happened to be comfortable. Blake was not as lucky, having to wear her own heeled boots everywhere. While she had become accustomed to the balance she was required to maintain at the augmented height and the higher speeds at which she often travelled, she still gazed somewhat jealously at the low, flat, and most importantly, heelless shoes that seemed so casual and comfortable. She saw Yang's gaze meet her own and, for the briefest of moments, she saw a worried look come across the blonde's features. This look did not last, for a beaming grin and an outstretched hand shook any possible negativity away. "Let's go."

The argument from the other room seemed to intensify, yet anything said by either participant was inaudible; the sound alone made Blake uncomfortable, anxious. This was only exacerbated by Yang's inadvertent lack of transparency. "Yang, where are we going?" She was willing to go wherever the blonde wanted, she was simply grasping at any potential information she could that pertained to how Yang acted. She knew it was a hopeless attempt and she knew it would be more beneficial if she learned how to read Yang in a timely fashion, but she couldn't help but try to hasten the process.

With a roll of the eyes, Yang took Blake's hand and pulled her. "I don't know; let's just get out of here." Blake allowed herself to be pulled out of the front door, having deemed the given excuse acceptable in the amount of information it offered. Though, her permission would not have been a truncating factor even if she had opposed the suggestion due to Yang pulling her along preemptively.

The low heat of a summer's noon was lost on the ruminating mind of the Faunus. Yang's reply of no intended destination had not been what Blake expected, yet it did not stop her from forming connections. She figured that the argument had caused the blonde to act before planning, causing the excuse given. This was odd for Yang; she always seemed to have a plan whenever an otherwise awkward situation required one. Blake reasoned that she had been torn between aiding her sister and letting her sister grow by dealing with her own problems, causing a confused and rushed demeanor. She already knew that Yang cared for her sister dearly, so she attributed some of the discord to an internal conflict. However, this did not explain her withholding of information when there was no plan of action in the first place. Was it due to playful mischievousness or pride in not wanting to seem wrong?

The answer did not come due to Blake having to focus her attention on maintaining balance. When she was pulled out the door, she expected Yang to bring her down the steps of the porch and onto the road for whatever reason—out of routine, perhaps. It was this preconception that she would be walking down steps that caused Blake to step as though she were descending a staircase. Unfortunately, Yang did not lead her down the steps, instead choosing to lead her along the porch towards the side of the house. The lack of change in elevation caused Blake to stumble, effectively shaking her from her contemplations. However, she did not fall; Yang had gripped her arm as she began her descent. "Blake!" she heard the figure beside her exclaim. Yang did not release her hold, making it a point to keep Blake balanced even after she was standing on her own. "What happened? Are you alright?"

Perhaps there was an opportune time and place to ponder over Yang's motives and intentions, but that moment was neither here nor now. Blake shook her head, in part to clear her mind somewhat, but mostly to calm Yang. "It's nothing. I just wasn't paying attention is all."

"Yeah, well that much is obvious." Blake met Yang's teasing grin with a slight smile of her own, an attempt to appease the blonde on the subject of her own stumbling. It seemed to work for the time being. "Just remember: you're the one who wanted to wear heels."

"It's not like I had a choice." They continued on their path, Yang still holding onto Blake, but by her hand rather than her arm. Blake hadn't yet had the opportunity to truly observe the layout of the odd porch. As she rounded the side of the building, she found that the deck wrapped around one side of the home, but not the other. The house cast a shadow over the wooden walkway, alleviating the two of the extraneous heat from the sun.

In this cool darkness, Blake found herself more at ease with the situation, causing the her to minimize the distance between herself and her girlfriend. Their arms now touching and their fingers intertwined, they continued to walk. Blake could hear the clicking of her heels on the planks below before the sound was drowned out by Yang's playful reply. "You have a choice about whether or not to go shopping. But I don't think you want to do that, do you?"

Blake only just contained a shudder. The thought of the crowds, the disappointing selections, and the overall inefficiency of all participants in the potential act caused her indifferent demeanor to become more prominent, if only for a moment. "I don't want to go shopping, but I think I will eventually have to. I don't think I need to be constantly ready to fight Grimm every second I'm in Vale." Yang groaned. "What?"

"I know I'm going to have to go with you. I can't let you do something like that on your own."

"So, why did you make that noise?"

"Because I'm going to hate it as much as you will." Blake smirked. Yang was being open with her and was walking close-by—she couldn't ask for more. With the majority of her attention having been focused on the warm presence, Blake was only now able to see that the porch on this side of the house led to set of stairs that gave access to a concrete patio, unobscured by the house's shadow. Both sisters seemed to have failed to inform her that such a place existed. She wouldn't complain, for it was their home, but it would have been nice to know that there was a fire pit outside that they could have been utilizing.

Yang led her down the steps and away from the stone landing as though the area hadn't existed whatsoever. What had been appreciation of Yang's apparent openness changed into worry caused by her avoidance of the patio. It didn't look to be a place of shame—it was remarkably clean for the sisters having been gone for nine months—yet neither sister had so much as alluded to the fact that it existed. However, the cause of this worry was immediately proven false at the sight of Yang's carefree smile. If she had to guess, Yang hadn't talked about the patio because it had simply not come up in conversation.

Perhaps she was being overly critical about Yang's nuances and quirks. Perhaps she was searching for something where there was nothing to be found other than what could be seen at face value. Yang didn't seem like the type to keep her in the dark unless she was in a teasing mood. Other than that, Yang seemed to be a fairly straight-forward person. Still, she did seem as though she needed to mask her negativity, if only for the good of the group.

Seeing the sunny expression on the blonde allowed Blake to reevaluate her approach on learning how to read Yang. She figured it would be better to learn as time passed rather than trying to overanalyze seemingly insignificant cues. She continued to rest her head against Yang's shoulder as they strolled off into a direction that was away from the house.

As they moved away from the stone landing, Blake was met with the slightly jarring sight of a large, rectangular, and shockingly open field. How she had not noticed this sight before was more so surprising when added on to the fact that she hadn't heard of the patio either. On three sides, the field was surrounded by forest—the edge of the sisters' land and the terminus of Vale's civilization. The two were not walking towards the field but instead the forest, taking their time in their travels and reveling in the comfortable silence that lacked argument. Even in this silence, Blake could not help but wonder what the field was for. The only thing that came to mind was that it was used for farming, but neither of the sisters seemed to be the agricultural type. As if on cue, Yang spoke. "Ruby and me used to spar out here sometimes. It had to be big so I couldn't set the house on fire and so Ruby could have room to run. Maybe we overdid it."

Looking up, Blake found Yang smiling at her. In response, she raised an eyebrow. "You made that?"

"Yup!" Yang chirped. "Ruby and me got tired of not being able to practice at Signal so we cut a few trees down and voilà! A big ol' practice field to use whenever we want. Pretty neat, huh?"

Blake's lips curled into a genuine smile that verged on becoming devious. She had a strong desire to say something along the lines of "You would," or "Somehow, I'm not surprised," due to the sisters choosing to build something massive rather than find a place where they could spar. Instead of saying that or anything at all, she simply hummed and relaxed against Yang once again. She felt a warm weight press against the top of her head that was found to be her girlfriend's own head, creating an inseparable closeness as the two walked into the forest.

Although this nameless forest was not as aesthetically pleasing as the Forest of Forever Fall, it was not like the Emerald Forest either in that it was neither outwardly ominous nor visibly dense. Much like the canopied pathway in the park, sunlight from above lit the way for the couple in stripes and spots aplenty. They walked quietly, with no intention of conversation. As Yang watched proudly over the girl walking beside her, Blake closed her eyes, allowing her hearing to take over as her primary perceptive sense while subconsciously nuzzling closer into the warm figure's side. Where they were going was not important; the fact that they were getting farther away from the argument and its participants was what kept them mobile and happy. The absolute serenity and comfortable isolation displayed by this carefree stroll seemed like something pulled from a romance novel and Blake was all the more content for it.

Never once during the pleasantly slow journey did their hands disconnect, their fingers remaining intertwined and unaffected by prolonged exposure to each other. They wandered aimlessly between the trees and over the sea of foliage. As the journey continued and the number of steps taken increased, Blake began berating herself for wearing heels. Her balance did nothing to improve her stride and could not compensate for the fact that the focused points of her shoes often became stuck in the permeable forest floor. The need to rest was growing steadily and she knew it was only a matter of time before she succumbed to the desire. This left her in a distracted state with the only malleable attention she had left focused on her girlfriend.

Unfortunately, this lackadaisical peace had to end due to a quick and almost inaudible form that rustled through the leaves and stopped the girls in their tracks. All thoughts about her heels were replaced by the urgency of an absent Gambol Shroud. Blake automatically moved from the hold, allowing herself to scan her surroundings while letting Yang move behind her in order to watch the area she could not. Back to back, the two stood watching, their centers of balance slowly lowering as they readied for potential combat.

Grimm were said to not exist within the limits of Vale, yet the professors at Beacon had warned their students to not trust hearsay and be alert at all moments. They had never expressly stated that a threat existed within the boundaries of civilization, but the amount of foreboding that snaked its way into their words gave the students reason to not accept the popular belief. Still, some of the faculty could be heard voicing their agreement that Vale was safe, but they remained adamant that it was better to be safe than sorry. This is why the simple stroll through the forest had to cease so quickly and why their attention had to allocate itself to scanning for a potential threat.

In this time of silent tension, Blake was able to find one factor of her heels that she could appreciate: they were able to dig into the foliage enough for her to feel confident that she could hold her position. Both stood with their fists raised, ready to defend against any strike that may come and to strike back at whatever could deal a potential blow. The thickets rattled again; this time, the sound was more prominent, their senses having been trained to that sound. It was heard again soon after, but it was fainter, thusly further away. Blake did not see Yang react to the newer sound out of the corner of her eye. The sound came again from the same faraway distance. Yang did not react.

Swiftly and unabashedly, Blake reached for her bow and freed her ears. Instantly, the rustling sound could be heard as though it were mere feet away. As she tied the ribbon hurriedly around her wrist, she tried to focus on the noise, finding the task much simpler than it had been. Her left ear twitched, telling her that the sound came from that direction. As she turned, Yang did as well, in near-perfect synchronicity forged from their time as partners. Yang's heat was rising yet it was unable to distract the unblinking, detached stare that Blake trained on the source of the noise. The underbrush shook violently and exuded that distracting noise from before. The two didn't wait long for the source of the sound to emerge.

Both were prepared to strike—to go on the immediate offensive and keep whatever made the sound from harming the other. However, neither was prepared for the sight they were met with. A singular squirrel, it's mouth puffed out from whatever carriage it held, emerged quickly from the bush before standing on its hind legs and looking inquisitively at the duo.

Blake relaxed her stance and sighed, half in relief, half in disbelief. At the same time, she heard muffled giggles coming from her girlfriend. Looking to her with a bored expression, Blake found Yang's face red with suppressed mirth. An unadulterated smile twitched occasionally at the corners of her lips, becoming more frequent as her giggles intensified. Blake could understand Yang laughing at what had happened, but she couldn't comprehend the restraint her partner was showing.

In an attempt to understand why she wasn't laughing, Blake looked at Yang's eyes. She was surprised to see something in them—rather, she was surprised that she was able to perceive something from the eyes. Yang was not looking where the squirrel was nor was she looking back into Blake's eyes. Following her gaze, Blake found that Yang was looking at her, but above her eyes. Unaware of why this was, Blake had to ask, "Yang, is everything alright?"

At this, Yang doubled over in a fit of laugher, falling to her knees and onto the forest floor. Her eyes had closed, obscuring any possible line of sight that Blake could follow. Fortunately, she did not need this to tell that Yang was still laughing for the same reason. Between howls of laughter, Yang was barely able to get out the first words of potential sentences—words such as "You," "It," and "Those"—before succumbing to laughter once more. From these three specific words, Blake was able to guess that Yang was laughing at her interaction with the animal. This allowed a small smile to appear upon her features and a slight, unknowing giggle to her voice. "What?"

Yang's laughter had ceased momentarily in order for her to respond. "You looked like you were ready to kill that squirrel!" Her laughter resumed and Blake's smile widened slightly even if she didn't know where Yang was going with her explanation. However, the Faunus' reaction would be short-lived. "You're totally a cat and there's no telling me otherwise!" guffawed Yang.

This immediately caused Blake's expression shift from light-hearted to stoic and finally to annoyed. She now understood what Yang had been staring at and what the "Those" in question were. Her Faunus ears folded back against her head as she sent a short glare Yang's way before turning away. "Blake, wait," Yang sniffled, trying her hardest to recover from the uncontrollable amusement. But it was too late; Blake stood resolute, facing the opposite direction and trying to untie her ribbon from her wrist. "Blake, I'm sorry." Any remaining signs of laughter were gone now, replaced by a sincere tone of concern. Blake acted as though she couldn't hear her as she continued trying to unravel her bow. In her upset state, she found it a much more difficult process than it should have been. Because she tried to tune out Yang's voice, she was unable to hear the approaching sound approaching footsteps.

Blake tensed as Yang embraced her from behind. Her arms were confined and were forced to cease their actions as they were restrained by the blonde's hug. She wanted to get away, but she could not bring herself to do so. Yang was too strong and the hold wasn't necessarily uncomfortable. With her head still ducked from looking at her bow, Blake could see Yang's arms wrapping around her midriff—the hold wasn't overbearing; in fact, Yang's arms neither looped nor locked to restrict Blake's movements. The embrace was calm and caring, yet unrelenting and bold. Blake stiffened further at the approaching of a warmth noticeably different from Yang's regular body heat. She could feel her girlfriend's breath on her shoulder as Yang's head lowered to sit parallel to Blake's.

"Please don't." Yang's voice was soft and small. "I think you look better without the bow." Blake frowned. She wasn't putting the bow back on to punish Yang but instead to defend herself from any further jokes. However, Yang's pleading tone caused her to reconsider her actions. "I didn't mean for my jokes to hurt you." Intentions did not matter much when the action itself had already caused a negative reaction. "I'm sorry, Blake." As much as she hated to admit it, she was—Blake could hear the sincerity in her voice. As she finished her plea, Yang tightened the hold on Blake and nuzzled closer to her girlfriend. "Please don't be mad," she whispered.

What use was fighting for years to have her species recognized as people rather than animals if she let a joke about her being a cat go? She had done so before, but the jokes in those instances had been nothing serious since she knew her teammates regarded her as another intelligent being. Still, the fact that Yang had said, "you can't tell me otherwise," stung. Those five words aptly summarized why she had fought with the White Fang—why the Faunus had struggled—and the worst of it all had been that it came from Yang. Her partner had been particularly attached to the prospect of making cat jokes, so Blake could assume that this was only another instance of a teasing remark between friends, but the possibility that it wasn't still existed. However, there was a statement in the apology that seemed to contradict those five words.

Blake knew now why Yang had suddenly hugged her. While there were some comforting and appeasing intentions to the hold, Blake was sure that there was some underlying cynicism and she was fine with that. The statement that she looked better without the bow more than humanized her. It showed acceptance coming from a human rather than flirtatious interest that could be shown by another Faunus. It was Yang's cynicism about wanting to see more of her Faunus ears that caused the raven-haired girl to feel as though those years of fighting hadn't mattered and that she had won in the end. She relaxed into the hold and felt Yang smile into her neck. She couldn't bring herself to smile yet, but she did roll her eyes as a way to show some positivity.

Time seemed to be the last of the couple's concerns as they stood in the forest, immobile and comfortable in the midst of the embrace. After minutes that felt like blissful hours, Blake felt Yang's smile widen again. She had been ready to ask what the smile was about, but Yang spoke first. "You smell nice." Suddenly flustered and active, Blake struggled free of the embrace, causing Yang to inquire a playfully confused, "What?"

Free from the hold and unsure of what to do in response to the complement, Blake balled her hands into fists as she watched her girlfriend and thought of a way to quickly change the subject so that she could avoid awkwardly dealing with the compliment. With her mind made up on an unrefined plan, Blake quickly took Yang's hand and pulled her along. Before Yang could protest, Blake said, "Come on, Ruby and Weiss are probably done arguing and are wondering where we are."

Yang smiled and went along with it for a moment before she stopped abruptly, anchoring Blake from moving any further. She stood wide-eyed, looking as though she had seen a ghost. "Blake," she began, audibly worried, "I forgot which way we came from."

Still unable to look at Yang, Blake pulled fruitlessly against Yang's immovable stance. She said, "Just follow me, I know where to go," as an attempt to dislodge the blonde from her position. It seemed to work as Yang's smile returned and she practically skipped along while Blake started forward suddenly.

It wasn't that she was embarrassed by the compliment—in fact, Blake did not know why she was acting this way. If she had to guess, her reason for not being able to look at Yang and her inability to take the compliment could have been caused by either shame at her hostility towards a rodent or the significance of Yang's sincerity shown through the apology and compliment. Either way, she began to move faster at Yang's subsequent exclamation of "You're the best!" Blake knew that her current reaction was off, but try as she might, she could not coolly accept the compliments. Fortunately, this embarrassed and meek reaction faded as they made their way out of the forest.

Much like their walk in the park forest, the journey back was much shorter than the journey there. Because of the distance Blake kept from Yang, she was able to calm down from her apparent embarrassment. Concurrently, because of the contact that she maintained, she was able to steadily regain her normal level of comfort. As the distance from the house closed, so did the distance between the two girls. By the time the house could be seen though the thinning wood, the couple walked side-by-side, once again comfortable with each other's close presence. The thought of donning her bow did not cross Blake's mind; she figured that because she was trying to adjust the team to her not wearing the ribbon and because Yang seemed so enthused by the idea of her not wearing it, she could go without concealing her ears for the time being.

The sun still hung high and time seemed to have not passed during their venture into the forest. As they finally passed the tree line, Yang began to move forward, taking the lead now that she knew where she was going. At the same time, the heat of midday became apparent, causing Blake to feel stifled but still wanting more. Relief was attained as the two entered the shadow of the house, climbing the steps by the patio.

As they walked along in the shadows of the porch, Blake noticed Yang raising an eyebrow. "What is it?" she hummed.

Yang squinted and moved her head closer to the house for a moment before returning to her regular posture with a confused expression. She whispered, "I don't hear them arguing. Do you think something happened? Maybe Weiss scared Ruby off or Ruby said something to make Weiss mad." She had an odd expression that seemed both worried and genuinely curious.

Blake squeezed her hand, ceasing the blonde's concerns. "I'm sure they're fine," was all she said on the subject. It seemed to be enough to truncate any further qualms from Yang, bringing a warm, confident smile to the sunny girl.

The entrance into the house took longer than it should have, due in large to Yang making it a point to be quiet as to not alert either girl to their presence. She said that it added to the suspense of it all and would pay off when they caught the two being amiable. Blake doubted that they would find the two acting in such a way so soon after a heated argument, but what she found contradicted her doubts and caused Yang to become mischievously enthused.

As they entered the home theatre room, Blake could see a few of the spikes of Weiss' tiara peeking over the top of the couch. The crown hadn't moved at the entrance of the couple, leading both to believe that she was still furious at Ruby. Yang seemed to think that the only rational thing to do would be to walk in front of Weiss and force her to detail what had transpired. Blake didn't have time to object before she was pulled to stand in front of the heiress. The sight she was met with made her forget that she had been hesitant about the action in the first place.

Yang had been somewhat correct in her assumptions that Ruby and Weiss would be on better terms; however, neither expected the two to be as comfortable around each other as they were in this present scene. What Blake hadn't noticed before was that Weiss' tiara could be seen above the seat to the left of the loveseat portion of the couch—the seat that Ruby had occupied earlier. Not only was Weiss sitting on this seat, but Ruby was as well. Though, it would be incorrect to describe their positions as "sitting" in this instance, for neither showed signs of being awake or even attempting to maintain an upright posture. They were asleep now, huddled against each other on a couch seat designed for a single person, causing them to lie in a form of hug that seemed both affectionate and necessary so that neither would fall off. Both looked blissfully distant from their regular personalities; Ruby was calm and kept a soft smile and Weiss' frown did not seem as condescending as much as it was dissatisfied.

To think that those two could have argued the way they did now seemed preposterous. Their emotional defenses were blissfully nonexistent, causing them to look like children who had tired themselves out. However innocent their hold on each other looked to be, there was nothing childlike about the reasons behind it. It was wholly apologetic, regretful, and necessary.

Before anything could happen, Blake noticed a devious smirk on Yang's face. "No," she whispered quickly. She then saw that Yang was looking around the immediate vicinity for something. "Yang, don't do anything to them. They've been through enough."

In a show of playful annoyance, Yang let out a long sigh. "I was just going to take a picture of them," she whined. "I want to save such a precious moment." The mischievous glimmer in her eyes faltered at Blake's serious glare. "Fine," she sighed, "can I at least get them a blanket? They look cold—well, at least Weiss does."

Blake rolled her eyes. "Sure." Yang left the room, leaving her girlfriend to watch over their sleeping teammates. Blake was sure that if Weiss knew about this, she would unleash one of her loudest, harshest tirades upon her, Faunus or not. She knew that Ruby would show her some mercy, but she felt for Yang. If one of the two knew that Yang saw them, the other would know soon after and Yang would be subjected to the wrath of both girls. Fortunately, it could have been worse. A picture could have had major implications on the structural integrity of the team—a blanket would work well.

Yang hadn't been gone for a minute before giddily returning with a blanket in hand. Forgoing any sense of stealth, Yang unfurled the blanket, shaking any remaining folds out and causing an obnoxious, flapping sound to fill the room. Her grin told Blake that this noise was intended and all the Faunus could do was roll her eyes—there was no point in stopping the noise now that it had ceased. Yang's lowering of the blanket did not go unseen by Blake, mostly due to the fact that the Faunus knew how opportune this moment could be for the blonde. Yang seemed to take extra care in making sure the fabric covered both girls, going so far as to tuck them in. Blake felt that their movement closer together caused by her girlfriend's action was intended as well. She sighed.

Yang stepped back to inspect her work and after finding it at least tolerable, smiled at Blake. "So, what now?"

Amber eyes were trained on the sly gleam that still existed within the lilac orbs. Seeing this, Blake knew that she needed to distance Yang from the two. "Why don't we see what they bought at the store? Perhaps we could find something for lunch."

"I don't know," Yang drawled. "All that walking made me tired and I _kinda_ want to get back to the game."

Blake could see that there were ulterior motives to Yang's suggestion and she could guess what they were—she was now able to read that smirk and predatory twinkle of the eyes like a book. A hard "No," was all Yang got as a response before she was dragged away towards the kitchen. She was not upset by this in the least, grinning the moment Blake's hand touched her own and led her away from her would-be targets.

Their lunch would be wonderfully genial with conversation shifting between one meaningless subject to the next, often harkening back to the recent incident with the squirrel. Intermittent apologies came from the blonde which were quickly accepted by the Faunus. The ridiculousness of the situation was discussed without any further references to cats. Throughout the meal, Blake's freed ears reacted to the topics and mood, showcasing her emotions when her instilled stoicism did not otherwise allow it. She was happy with the situation—the meal, the company, and even the nonchalance of not wearing her bow—and would quietly watch Yang's expressions so that she would not be caught off-guard by any further actions or jokes.

While the couple's lunch may have gone well and without incident, what happened afterwards was quite the opposite. The belief that the action of placing a blanket over Ruby and Weiss would be relatively harmless when compared to taking a picture of the two was proven false. Even from the kitchen as she cleaned her plate, Blake could hear the other partnership waking up. What had started as hushed whispers turned into confused murmurs. This quickly turned into the duo shouting Yang's name and marching into the kitchen, disheveled and blushing. Despite their fiercest glares, the toothy grin Yang held never faltered—though, it is to say that Blake saw small cracks in the façade.

The two stared at the blonde for what felt like hours before looking at each other, blushing even harder than they had been, and hastily retreating to their separate corners, Ruby to the couch and Weiss to her shared room. The toothy grin turned towards Blake with a new addition of two thumbs raised in self-satisfaction, causing the Faunus to smile and shake her head. She knew that Yang was confident about her apparent victory and seemed sure that nothing would happen, but she also knew that it was only a matter of time before her teammates aired their grievances in a less-than-friendly way.

Until then, however, the two would enjoy each others' company as they cleaned their dishes and made lunch for Ruby and Weiss in case they got hungry. Neither would talk about what they had seen upon their return nor would they mention their teammates' subsequent reaction, instead choosing to remain close to each other and wait out the impending storm.

* * *

I hope the description of the video game wasn't too much. I thought that I might let the reference run its course to completion because while I found it humorous to an extent, there's only so much to say about it before it becomes boring. Perhaps I went too far with it, but just know that the description is not entirely meant for superfluous elaboration or to fill pages (Most of what I write seldom is.). I will admit that some of the description was forced just so that I could move the chapter's plot along, but it is almost never one-dimensional. It may be too late for me to mention how much I love writing hidden, ambiguous metaphors and general word play that both foreshadow later parts of the story.

Do you remember how I said that I would probably never write a chapter that was 20,000 words long again? Me too. Unfortunately, I enjoyed writing chapter seven far too much and the word count naturally found its way past 20,000. I would like to apologize in advance—not for the chapter's length, but for its content. Comparatively, this chapter is light-hearted, even with the argument and Blake's self-destructive introspection on her now remedied inability to read Yang's emotions. You have been forewarned.

Even though I've probably run this into uninteresting redundancy, I would still like to thank you for reading and for making it this far into the story. Seriously. By the time I post this chapter, I should break one thousand unique visitors and that is absurd to me in the most positive sense. At a single time, I've had at most ten people read a manuscript of mine as it progressed to offer criticism or general support. I thought that _maybe_ I would have two hundred readers for this story. I know that the "1,000 visitors" statistic does not necessarily mean one thousand users who have read completely through chapter one, but it's still astounding. Thank you. I'm beginning to believe posting on this site has been one of the most emotionally rewarding moments in my life. This sentiment would not be possible without your support.

Stay safe and stay tuned.


	7. Chapter 7: The Storm

I am never ceased in my amazement at the show of support I have received from this site. Just about every reviewer and those who have sent me private messages have been some of the kindest people I have ever come in contact with. At the same time, they have not been afraid to voice their opinions and concerns and that is incredible! Really, thank you all. It means a lot to me.

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the content of this chapter is a bit more…heavy-handed than the others. Nothing is written to shock or offend; some of the subjects described are merely less lighthearted than the rest of the narrative. The subjects described are the reasons why this chapter is as long as it is (for which I apologize in advance). This is just a warning in case anyone needs one.

I also ask that after finishing the chapter, you read the author's note at the end. The last part of it is fairly important.

Prepare yourselves. Chapter seven of _Valence_ is a bit of a bumpy ride.

* * *

Chapter 7: The Storm

Humans were a deplorable breed—rather, these humans that clustered before the erected barricades and rattled the gates with their incessant stomping and jeering were a deplorable breed. By no means was this the peaceful, exciting summer that Blake looked forward to after her first year at Beacon Academy. A harrowing, autumnal gust rushed past the younger Faunus girl and chilled her to the bone without being able to sway her volunteered resolve. Those who planned this event called it a "rally," and though it was not to be expressly peaceful if those in power had any say in the matter, Blake was young and naïve enough to believe it would be and would trust in those she called a family. With a steely gaze, she watched the crowd that slurred obscenities at her and her comrades. She watched in disgust as these people who were so ignorant of her people and so evasive to diplomatic discussions tried to end their peace rally. She hoped this wouldn't end in conflict; conflict would only dig a deeper hole for the Faunus people. Perhaps it wouldn't end in conflict. Perhaps they could make their speech, affect a few people with it, and leave in peace. Perhaps.

For the moment, all she could do was wait, watching the crowd for any signs of riot and gazing infrequently at the rolling, grey clouds that burdened the light of day. There wasn't anybody to talk to—not that she would have if there had been. These were new, forgettable faces of a lower cell in the organization—grunts if she was to be completely honest. She had been patient for some time now and her ability to wait without complaint was wearing thin. Out of all of these grunts, there was yet to be a person of higher rank able to be seen at the event. The speaker had not yet arrived and if he didn't get here soon, then their efforts would be for naught; the crowd would erupt into violent protest against an opposing peaceful protest. She had to remain calm. The others looked to her for de facto leadership.

This leadership, however, was infrequent as she was barely able to control her anger enough to consider herself level-headed. Who were they calling animals, anyway? She and the White Fang were using words to prove their point. Their response was to shake the barricades despite the pleas of the rally members. Too many had swarmed to this factory's front gates. Some must have been employees and could be justified with their anger, but there were far too many humans here. This created a problem for the younger member of the White Fang, who had to watch for any potential problem. Unfortunately for her, there were many variables to watch over.

The size of the crowd would not draw the attention of the media. There were a large number of humans present, but there was nothing historic about the crowd's size—it could be reasoned that the majority of the nearby small town's residents came to participate in this counter-protest. Still, it was enough to set the stoic Blake Belladonna on edge. She normally wasn't afraid of crowds, but between the sheer quantity of those involved and their degree of fervent opposition, she found herself worried about probability. She knew that even with her speed and hand-to-hand combat knowledge she could fend off only a few of the humans should relative civility deteriorate. There were more than a few humans here—so much so that she believed that even with the grunts there to assist her, she wouldn't be able to make it out alive if the crowd rioted. It was for this reason that she became increasingly aware of the foreign weight that burdened her hip.

She knew that she had blindly accepted the pistol given to her before thinking of the consequences of having it on her person. She had missed neither the frightened and enraged looks on the faces of the crowd members nor the slightly jealous expressions of the other White Fang members as both groups watched the firearm warily. She was not happy about it herself; taking the weapon meant that she had accidentally agreed that if the situation turned to violence, she would be ready to remedy any potential problem. Her own problem was that she wasn't ready to remedy anything involving this rally. The speaker was supposed to be here by now to assume leadership. Since he wasn't here yet, she was put in charge of the other members because she had the pistol. She didn't know why they gave it to her since she hadn't had any training with any firearm as of yet nor did she know why they had trusted her of all people to take charge of this rally for the time being. However, she had a responsibility not only to those that she called friends in the White Fang, but to the message that they were to give to the masses as well. Because of this, she blindly took the gun.

Blake's head shot up to look at the crowd at the sound of a low, rumbling noise. Fortunately, nothing had changed within the upset group of humans. Her eyes drifted up towards the subtly darkening clouds. She had originally thought the sound had been a growing murmur of discontent amongst members of the crowd—one that would incite potential violence, causing the quick reaction—when it turned out to be simple thunder.

She had been too preoccupied with watching the clouds quickly drift across the sky to notice that there had been movement on the ground. It wasn't until she heard the jeering of the humans come back in full force that she knew something was happening. Despite the insults and the palpable animosity, the crowd parted so that a long, black limousine could pass by and through the metal gate of the factory. As soon as the vehicle was inside the lot, the grunts scrambled to their posts and did everything in their power to obey the orders that Blake automatically called out. The gate was closed, counter-protesters pushed out, and a perimeter was secured. This last item on the list struck Blake as odd because not only was establishing a perimeter accustomed to more militant operations than a peace rally, but because she had no prior knowledge that those members of the White Fang whom she assumed to be grunts were capable of such an organized feat.

It seemed as though she was not the only one with these sentiments. The rattling on the barricades and the gates had quieted over time, but with the introduction of the limousine, it came back in full force alongside chants of aggression and hate. This is why the White Fang was here; the things they spewed were vile and caustic and, most of all, wrong. These humans didn't understand the White Fang's cause, judging by the fact that they became hostile at the entrance of a diplomat. However, this was prepared for. Since they seemed to not care for a dialogue, the White Fang would hold a monologue.

Unfortunately, the monologue seemed to have the possibility of not coming to fruition if the weather had any say in the matter. Thunder shook the earth on which Blake stood once again, this time overpowering the crowd and sending them to a momentary silence. It is not to say that the White Fang members were unnerved either—both parties paused for a moment as the far-off lightning made its warning evident before resuming their respective activities.

Blake could barely focus on the man stepping out of the vehicle due to her mind remaining fixed on the possibility of inclement weather and the crowd becoming increasingly prone to rioting. The insults shifted from generalities to personal remarks with terms such as "Liar," "Radical," and "Murderer" becoming common amongst the crowd's members. It wasn't the definitions or connotations of the words that concerned Blake—she knew that the White Fang's leadership was seldom the first term and never the latter two—but the ferocity with which they spat them. She could hear a group's conviction in their ideals due to her prior experiences attending White Fang speeches, so she was sure that these humans believed what they were saying. They were so pitiful, so misguided.

Two variations of the chant, "Let us in!" could be heard from the crowd. On one hand, the workers of the factory were sincerely demanding entrance to their place of work so that they could earn their pay. This was admirable to some extent; they seemed to not care about the bias against the Faunus, their lower pay, and fewer employment opportunities and were thusly not necessarily opposed to Faunus coworkers. But their indifference on the matter was precisely why the White Fang was here—so that they could make the workers care and to convert them to their cause.

However, only a fraction of the crowd was from the factory. Those who came from the town were more violent in their demands, audibly wanting nothing less than harm to befall the organization and its leadership. This is what caused the separation in tone. One group was pleading for entrance while the other was demanding entrance. The worst part was that the speech hadn't started yet. The crowd's anger was guaranteed to grow when the White Fang began to detail its purpose.

This was immediately proven evident as the speaker took the stage that had been set up before the gates. The roar of discontent became deafening on both an auditory and ideological level. How could people be so imperceptive and ignorant of an opposing viewpoint? She couldn't answer this question because humans were so different—so alien—that Faunus common sense surely couldn't apply. Her attention could not be distracted from the crowd's movements by another growl of thunder. Nobody in the crowd seemed to be phased by the weather any longer. The anger amongst the masses was so common that chants and defamation of property became frequent incidents, causing the White Fang's movements to become clockwork due to the amount of time spent practicing for an event such as this. The weather became a nonentity to both parties, unable to do anything more than the White Fang had already attempted.

Her hand subconsciously made its way to the grip of her gun as she watched the slow climb of the black-clad White Fang diplomat to the podium. She didn't know why the weapon felt right in this instance. Perhaps it was the promise of protection against an enemy out of range for hand-to-hand techniques. Perhaps it was the speed at which an offense could be halted with its utilization. Perhaps it was the fact that the firearm was the only thing keeping the crowd from killing the speaker. No matter what the cause was, Blake was severely uncomfortable with her attachment to the weapon. All of these rationalizations were fueled by an idea that she had resented for the longest time: violence can solve problems and send a message if done correctly. In this instant, she thought herself no better than those in the crowd.

Everything was relatively calm. The crowd felt at ease with their chosen diction of slanderous remarks while the speaker simply smiled and waved, unprovoked by the contained anger. Whoever he was—she didn't and wouldn't know his name due to the cell-type structure of the organization—he was professional to say the least. As he tapped the papers of his speech against the podium, he gave a conspicuously sincere smile to those that berated him. Blake felt that the situation was strangely off. The picture painted before her of the decrepit factory lot, the gates and barricades that had fallen into disrepair, and the low light conditions and humidity of the approaching storm made her unable to relax. She had believed that things would change at first, but that was before she was aware of how adamant the crowd members were in their beliefs. They wouldn't change their minds and the speech would only serve to make them angrier.

It is to say that the speech could have had the possibility of inciting violence had it the opportunity to begin. The word "unfortunate" is a rather positive description for the scene yet to play out, having connotations linked to trivialities and nuisances far too petty for the lasting effects of the actions set to unfold. So it is to say that unfortunately, neither the speech nor the reaction to the speaker could occur. Everything about these two rallies, those for and against Faunus civil rights, would be proven relatively peaceful and desirable after the intervention of a present but ignored third party.

Nobody saw the results at first, all wincing at the thought-truncating and deafening clap of thunder. Due to the varied physiology of their race, enhanced senses are a key feature of many variations of the Faunus people. Those with enhanced hearing (Including Blake, the speaker, and many of the grunts in the factory lot.) were brought to their knees by the incredible sound overhead. Blake had fallen to her knees, almost toppling over entirely at the loss of balance attributed to a momentary loss of hearing in both of her pairs of ears. The pain was only worsened by the wails of those around her and by the microphone the speaker used in order to call out in pain for either help or mercy. She had shut her eyes in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain but had only caused a voluntary blindness, causing her world to be affected by neither vision nor sound. It was in this void of pain that she could not see the fire.

The humans had recovered far faster than the Faunus had and shifted their angry, resentful glares from those in front of the factory to a sight of sheer horror that was the old factory. While the pain of the thunder was keeping a majority of the White Fang members down and out of action, the humans watched as the factory fell victim to a bolt of lightning that had gone unseen with the collective wince at the noise.

Nothing happened at first; the building retained its structural integrity and seemed to withstand what nature had thrown at it. However, just as the crowd's hopes that the factory was unscathed swelled, a fire peeked over the apex of the roof. Though the roof had been made of corrugated metal, the sheets had been attached to each other not by welding, but by a rubber-like material that was better suited for keeping out rain but was prone to catching fire. The humans stood terrified at the spreading spectacle that seemed to consume the entirety of the roof. That is, they had been standing in place due to shock until the roof fell in.

Blake couldn't remember if it was the groaning of the roof's metal dropping to the floor of the building or if it was the intense clattering and subsequent shattering of the barricades and gates that she heard first. Either way, the first thing she saw was a result of both sounds. As she reopened her eyes, she saw a swarm of humanity rushing into the lot as the brick-walled factory burned. No optical damage had been dealt to her, yet she could not register what she was seeing. There hadn't been that many people in the lot and the factory was supposed to have a metal roof. Furthermore, she didn't remember the that the sky had been as dark as it was now or that it was raining.

As she forced herself to a standing position, some part of Blake's mind told her that the current of unidentifiable, silhouetted forms cascading into the factory lot was hostile. She couldn't remember who anyone was, too shocked by the radically different sight which she had opened her eyes to. She was alarmed by the fact that the crowd had overtaken the stage and podium, but did not know why. Instead, her instincts told her to run. Without a thought in her mind arguing against it, she obeyed.

Even in her dazed state, Blake knew that running towards the crowd could not end well for her. Unfortunately, her only means of escape besides running through the front gate was to vault over the wall of the lot after jumping from a nearby parked car. What was unfortunate about this plan was that the only car sat on the opposite side of the lot. Because her equilibrium had been thrown off with her temporary deafness, Blake believed that the wall would be the hardest part of her escape. However, it was what was between the two walls of the lot that would cause lasting difficulty.

Thunder rang out again. She didn't know if the sound was not as loud as it had been before due to the possibility of the storm leaving or if her hearing had been damaged to where the thunder wasn't having the same effect. Neither the lack of knowledge nor the raucous sonority could slow her movements. What could have slowed Blake's movements, but never did, was the rain that had instantly slicked the asphalt surface, making it difficult for her to run with heels she had yet to become accustomed to. Nevertheless, she ran as fast as she could for the wall.

Another clap of thunder reverberated throughout the area, slowing Blake's progress by only a small amount due to it having distracted her from the slick pavement for a long enough period of time that she had almost fallen. Yet she did not fall and instead ran with eyes trained on her exit and nowhere else. She knew that there was a portion of the crowd chasing after her but she couldn't look at them, she had to move.

Unfortunately, sight was not the only sense at her disposal. She could hear the grunts that had fallen either to intense sound or to human violence groan in pain. However, they weren't asking for help or for the humans to relent, but instead called Blake's name.

With the calling of her name, the rational part of her mind came back into working order at a most inopportune time. The first thing she thought was not how to escape, whether or not she should use her weapon, or if she should aid the fallen White Fang members. No, in her distressed state of mind, Blake could not focus her thoughts on anything rational, instead opting for entertaining the more irrational, overly sentimental ideas. The single-most abrasive thought that ran through her mind was that she was a coward for not helping, for not using the pistol she was given, and for not aiding those who had fallen. She was helpless, a failure, and utterly incompetent. She could only care for her selfish goal of escape. She thought that the piercing wails of those in pain would not affect her if she kept her eyes shut. This would not be the case.

She could hear the roar of the crowd behind her. With her eyes closed, it didn't sound as though twenty humans were chasing her but thousands of militant savages instead. But the crowd's bellowing could not affect her as much as the wails of her allies. "Blake?" they called to her. She couldn't understand why she could still hear them. They were so far away and the noise coming from every other source was so overpowering that their voices should have been drowned out. But they wouldn't relent.

She was so close to the car and the wall when she felt an odd sensation in her legs. Had she been horizontal in that instant, she would have described the sensation as her legs falling beneath her. Yet she was vertical, causing her to feel as though her legs were giving out on her. She was so close to the car and the wall and she felt as though she might not be able to make it. It felt like she was about to trip when she heard her name called again. "Blake?" This time, it didn't come from the voice of any White Fang member nor did it come from a voice associated with autumn or a factory or the oppression of an entire race of people.

"Blake?" The dreary, frightening, autumnal scene that had played out before her vanished as Blake slowly became aware of the actual scene around her. Gone was the factory lot and in its stead was a white room, devoid of any hint of misery or grime. Rain had ceased and was replaced with the comfortably slight chill of air conditioning. There were no more crowds of people feuding over opposing ideals. There was only Blake, the intimidating hardcover book open on her lap, and the figure sitting on the side of her bed that asked, "Blake? Blake, are you alright?"

It is to say that after unwillingly falling into a flashback from stress considered post-traumatic, Blake was not at all "alright." However, this was not considered too large a problem by the Faunus who had encountered congruent visions before. Still, she could not say that she had become accustomed to the painful memories and it was for this reason she continued to feel mental and emotional anguish. But she would not show this pain as it contrasted her adherence to the school of stoicism and the belief that her past should stay in the past. Instead, she blinked a few times, focusing her sight on the concrete image of the figure in yellow before sighing and stating, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Yang shifted her position on Blake's bed so that she was no longer sitting with legs hanging off of the side. Her new position was a cross-legged one that incidentally allowed her knee to brush against Blake's leg, causing an inexplicable warmth to radiate throughout her and made it noticeably easier for her to breathe. Yang's brows furrowed at the statement. "That didn't look like 'fine.' I called your name like five times and you didn't even glare at me. You always get mad at me when I try to talk to you while you're reading."

Why did she have to be so perceptive? At the mention of her apparent "reading," Blake smoothly closed the book on her lap and set it to the side, allowing Yang to see the almost-dead language written on its cover and causing her to lose interest in the book. Though Blake had been shocked by the vision, she had not fallen into a state of immobile shock. She was haunted by the flashback but was able to retain her systematic composure and was able to not draw attention to what she was "reading." As the book had been her diary and unfortunate memoirs of times in the White Fang, she could not let Yang see it, causing the disregarding closure that evaded Yang's curiosity. She looked into her partner's eyes, intent on veiling the true reason for her unresponsiveness. "I'm sorry." She faked a yawn; she couldn't bring herself to tell the truth. "I was just tired."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. Sure. Yeah, I believe that." Her slight frown was changing into a smirk that was both teasing and caring, able to dismiss much of the negativity that clouded Blake's mind. "Look," she said, "I'm here for you if you need to talk. I'm not going to bug you like Ruby or the friendly princess, but I want you to know that if you want to talk about whatever's bothering you, I'm here." Her smirk broadened into a wide smile for a moment before she stood from the bed. "Anyways, I came to tell you that we're going to start up the fire pit pretty soon. I thought you'd want to know because it was your idea in the first place. Also," she scratched the back of her neck, "if you wanted to hang out with us too, that'd be cool."

With this final statement, Blake was able to momentarily forget the anguish and allowed herself to roll her eyes and smile. Even still, Yang was acting somewhat awkwardly around her despite the fact that they had been dating for a few days now. "I'll be there. Just give me a minute."

This brought Yang's sunny smile to full force. "Alright! I'll see you out there. The fire should be burning when you get there."

At this, Yang left, leaving Blake to recuperate and contemplate on what had just happened. Of course she knew what had happened when she zoned out; she knew when she was having a flashback since it was hard not to recognize that sensation. But it was the quick transition from momentary shock to relative normalcy that baffled her. Usually, it took Blake at least a few minutes to overcome the visions, yet with Yang's presence, she had returned to a regular, calm state of mind within a matter of seconds. This recovery might have been due to her emotional attachment to Yang, but considering the severity of the visions, she couldn't be sure that this was the case. She believed that Yang's presence had affected her somewhat, but even then, she should be still in some level of disrepair. Yet because Yang had been there and told her that she was able to be talked to, Blake was able to recover surprisingly quickly.

She knew it was in poor form to second-guess this opportunity, but she wanted to know how it could be recreated. There was a moment just then where she thought about dispelling this idea, thinking that her studious mind was trying to regress back into an education-focused mindset. However, she did not dispel the thought because it could have been useful. These visions were not necessarily common, but happened frequently enough that an instant cure such as the one Yang induced could help. Whatever this remedy was, it had only happened once and she could assume that it would not work every time. However, the occasional assistance would be a welcome change of pace, especially if it continued to include Yang's presence.

She sighed. Admittedly, this objective that she created for herself would probably never be completed—not because of the difficulty of the task, but due to probable distractions and her willingness to be distracted. Blake had no official training in mental health sciences, Faunus or otherwise, so there was little she could do to find an absolute cure for her flashbacks. However, she could see patterns in events and could correlate one instance with another to find some way to allay the memories, if only momentarily. But the ability to find and rationalize patterns took concentrated effort—something she was finding harder to allot time to during this summer break.

These thoughts proved able to distract Blake for a small amount of time, but her gaze was eventually drawn back to that black, hardcover book with the dead language embossed on its cover that sat still on the bed. She couldn't remove her gaze from her diary. Nothing about its text was necessarily graphic or horrifying—only opinions of the events of days far in the past existed on the journal's pages. However, these opinions were what brought back the memories. There is seldom an instance where an individual can look back on writings or opinions (Or in Blake's case, both.) of years prior without being filled with a sort of disgust and elitist pride. Blake looked back upon these first-person narrations as naïve, immature, and, most of all, haunting. So rapidly had her stance on the White Fang shifted from incredibly supportive to incredulously opposed that her personality before leaving could be considered entirely separate from her current personality. She certainly thought this way after reading those enthusiastic entries about successful "peace rallies" followed by the occasional unsuccessful protest entry which always brought about terrible memories.

In order to avoid any further flashbacks, Blake chose to move the book back into the nightstand beside her bed. She needed the book out of sight because she had felt the urge to return to the act of writing her opinions on recent events down. This summer, though only having spanned a total of four days, was unequivocally important to her and because of this, she felt the need to write her opinions in the same place where prior instances of importance had been noted. Unfortunately, her desire to write in this particular book made her feel obligated to read prior entries. Once she started reading, she couldn't stop until Yang intervened.

With her diary adequately concealed beneath the small library she had brought with her, Blake was able to refocus on Yang's recent offer. In hindsight, the invitation was surprising as she could not remember any point between now and earlier in the day when she had mentioned the fire pit. It was true that she would have liked to know of its existence and possible future usage, but she had not been proactive in seeking either of these. She guessed that Yang had seen her curious expression earlier, causing the blonde to believe that she had wanted to do something with the fire pit. Blake smirked. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have Yang looking out for her best interests even if she, herself, did not completely know what they were.

Blake moved slowly off of her bed as to avoid any potential injury. Because time had moved relatively faster with the assistance of reading and the unfortunate burden of the visions, she was not prepared to learn from the clock placed atop her nightstand that she had been stationary for some three hours. She did not have much trouble standing besides the initial sensation of her legs having fallen asleep. But even this feeling quickly faded away as circulation was allowed by the change in position.

She opted for putting on her boots from a standing position rather than having to return to the bed where she had been sitting on for too long. Due to the numbness that lingered in her legs, it took a few attempts to correctly put on her shoes, but once she did, she was confident that she needed to get as far away from the spot of her previous reflection as possible.

The house was oddly quiet. She could guess that everybody else was already outside, but this notion did not make her feel any less alone. As she walked along the silent hallway, she found the lack of banter between Ruby and Weiss and the absence of Yang's warm presence to be eerie. However, the setting was somewhat peaceful in its own way. She could admire the quaint oddities of this place without feeling the guilt of its owners watching her—though, it is to say that she never found any of these idiosyncrasies off-putting by any means. The muted sounds of her own steps made Blake realize that she was completely in control of this silence. She could be as quiet or as loud as she wanted and she knew that the acoustics of the building would adhere to her actions alone. But she felt that even this power, as small and trivial as it was, needed to be shared with the other members of her team. She had accepted Yang's initial invitation to stay the summer with a thought of an always-active household on her mind. This currently silent and vacant home was something unfortunately different from what she had expected and only served to move her towards wherever the others were faster.

As she opened the front door, she felt the cooler climate created by the air conditioning within the house seep out into the humid summer night, rushing past her uncovered arms and legs and causing her to shiver slightly. However, this sensation ceased the moment Blake closed the front door, leaving only the evening's muggy, coastal heat. As she stood on the wooden porch in front of the sisters' home, she found herself gazing at a light in the distance—what must have been downtown Vale's lights—for but a moment before turning to head for the porch.

She had expected some sort of aggressive welcome from the local community of insects, but was surprised when the night turned out to be incredibly still. Neither gnat nor mosquito harassed her skin or revealed ears. There were no glowing fireflies flying about or any moths attacking the lights in front of the house. Something seemed to be keeping the insect population—or any other animal besides humans and Faunus—at bay. She assumed that the distinct scent of smoke that prevailed in the sisters' land kept the bugs from coming out and bothering her. She was immediately even more thankful for the fire than she already was despite having not yet seen it.

Unfortunately, Blake did not realize the important connection between the noticeably high humidity in the air and the preemptive shelter of the other animals in the woods.

As she turned the corner of the house, her sight was drawn to the soft, orange glow of a beginning fire and the three silhouettes that stood nearby. With something to focus her attention on, Blake began to hear certain aspects of the group's conversation. Nothing pertaining to topics of discussion or distinguishable words could be ascertained from what she heard, but the tones of voice coming from the different speakers were clearly audible from where she was. Ruby and Yang seemed to be happy about the fire and were unfazed by Weiss' attempts at reprimanding the blonde's actions of earlier in the day. Yang didn't seem the least bit bothered by the remarks, remaining incredibly perceptive to her surroundings. Blake was caught off guard as the shadowed figure of Yang turned towards her and waved, shouting, "Hey, Blake! Over here!"

Hearing that warm, welcoming voice once again made Blake subconsciously increase her walking speed so that she could be near her girlfriend again. She didn't miss the exchange between Yang and Weiss which consisted of the heiress telling the blonde to keep her voice down and Yang's subsequent dismissal of the plea. As Blake made her way along the dark porch towards the group, she could imagine the wide grin Yang had at this instant. She was sure that Weiss would have thought the blonde's overt happiness was caused by irrational pyromania, but Blake believed that her partner's audible happiness spawned from the same reason her own walking became so rapid.

Blake had to compose herself as she descended the stairs in order to keep some level of outward aloofness. Internally, she wanted nothing more than to sit by the fire with her girlfriend who, right now, was the only person in her life keeping her from falling back into her own memories. It had been a rough three hours; she just wanted to relax and she felt that Yang would understand this. The fire still seemed to be in its beginning stages, not having yet caught on to more than the top log of the stack of wood. When Blake had walked around the house's corner, she had seen both Yang and Ruby poking at the fire, urging it to consume the fuel provided. But now that she walked down the steps, she saw Ruby continuing her actions while Yang was smiling warmly and walking towards her.

"Hey," Yang said softly. The two had slowed to a stop so that they stood before each other, grinning.

"Hey," Blake replied in much the same tone, watching the lilac eyes for any hint of hesitation. As Yang had told her, she was there for her—there was no amount of trepidation or other anxiety found within the girl's eyes, proving to Blake that she was truly ready to help her with anything and everything.

"I'm glad you came out. I would have missed you if you kept on reading. It'd be like Beacon all over again." Her soft smile changed into a slight smirk. "And I don't think anybody would want that, would they?" Blake lightly chuckled as she shook her head. As she did so, Yang moved to her side and put an arm over her shoulder. The young Faunus leaned into the embrace as they moved towards the chairs around the fire.

"I wasn't that detached, was I?" Blake felt that she had been a bit too quiet towards her other teammates at times, but never felt that she had been overly distant. Still, she wanted to hear Yang's opinion anyways.

"Nah," Yang drawled. "You were just giving those books of yours more attention than me."

Underneath Yang's one-armed hold, Blake was able to nudge her girlfriend with an elbow. "That wouldn't have been a problem if you told me you were interested sooner." She couldn't suppress her own smirk.

"Well, I would have if I was sure you wouldn't reject me." Blake could practically hear Yang's facial features contorting to a comical grimace as she gulped. "Or worse." A chuckle couldn't suffice for the humor that Blake found in that additional statement. She giggled as she leaned closer into Yang, knowing that she wouldn't have harmed Yang for any reason at all. When she looked ahead, she saw two metal chairs just in front of her. "You know, Blake," she heard Yang begin, "it took me a while to figure you out, but once I did I—"

Blake desperately wanted to hear the rest of what Yang had to say, but unfortunately, Weiss had to interject. "Oh, get over yourselves," she groaned. "You know you're not the only ones here, right? Or did you forget that our plan was to start a fire and _then_ talk?" When Blake looked to where Weiss was, she found the heiress sitting on a chair opposite their own, glaring daggers at the two of them.

She felt a shift in the embrace and when Blake looked to the cause of the disruption, she saw Yang looking at her with a raised eyebrow that seemed to silently ask, "Really?" Blake simply rolled her eyes in response. There were only a few seconds of inactivity where Yang looked to be mulling something over before she gave a wink. "Just be patient, princess. There isn't much we can do to help the fire spread. Although," her grin widened, "I thought I heard somewhere that Dust does a _really_ good job of setting things on fire." Weiss' eyes widened as her jaw visibly clenched. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I'm just asking because you're the Dust expert around here."

Ruby, seeming to be blissfully unaware of what Yang had said, turned away from the fire and moved to seat herself in the chair beside Weiss. At this, the heiress' demeanor relatively softened, the impending scowl and scolding having become a look of exasperation. She sighed. "I'm never going to be able to live that down, am I?"

Though the question seemed to be rhetorical in its phrasing, Yang felt compelled to answer. "Not until you do something bigger. If you need any ideas, I was thinking that you could set the school on fire. Go big or go home, right?" Yang's mischievous grin widened as Weiss' anger visibly heightened. "Well, maybe arson would do both. You would go big and you'd be sent home. Win-win!"

Not only had Weiss taken on a look of barely contained fury, but Ruby to an extent as well; though, Blake could only notice this because of the duration of the gaze that came from the leader with a generally short attention span. Being underneath Yang's embrace, Blake felt that the glares her partner was receiving were in some way directed at her as well. This led to a series of rapid thoughts, all trying to find ways to get herself out of this situation. What she came up with was to pull Yang closer to their seats while carefully choosing her words to avoid mentioning the fact that she was trying to get Yang out of trouble. "Hey, let's sit down."

It seemed to work as Yang moved along with her towards the chairs. Unfortunately, she could not stop Yang from exclaiming, "But I never got to tell her how she could poison the school's water supply! That'd be better to make fun of than a weak forest fire."

The reason why this was more unfortunate for Blake than it was humorous was because this extra statement caused Weiss to speak up. "If you're done incriminating yourself and making me an accessory to the eventual crime you commit, take your seat." Begrudgingly, Yang did as she was told but not because of Weiss' command. Blake had all but pulled her girlfriend down into her seat, resulting in an eye-roll from the blonde that was an undisguised imitation of Blake's own. She would have laughed at this had Weiss not continued speaking. "I worked hard to get into that school and I will admit that the incident on initiation day was a mistake. However, if I am going to attend Beacon Academy and do as well as I would like to, I cannot have any more mistakes of that caliber associated with my name. I would advise you to stay quiet about that incursion or, at the very least, keep it between us."

Yang gave a short laugh. "You're acting like I've been going around telling everybody about it."

Blake raised an eyebrow at this. She knew that Yang was a fan of recalling this particular instance in the forest, even if she wasn't there in person to witness it. Blake thought that she would have told a great many people judging by the amount of times she had brought the topic up in one way or another. Weiss seemed to have similar thoughts; however, she seemed to be more vocal with them than Blake was. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I've been keeping the story about the forest fire in-house." Blake lowered her eyebrow, remembering the majority of the times Yang had talked about the incident prior. Now that she mentioned it, there didn't seem to be many times where Yang openly talked about the fire to anyone besides those in their team. Perhaps there was a time when she told somebody in Team JNPR, but other than that, Yang didn't seem to be very open with that information around those not directly involved. Apparently, Weiss couldn't make this connection and gave the blonde an incredulous look. "I like making fun of you, Weiss, but I'm no monster. Whether you like it or not, I consider you a friend and as your friend, I'm not going to tell the world your secrets." Blake would have thought of this statement as comforting and sweet if Yang hadn't continued. "I'm just going to tell you your own secrets to make sure you understand that I know them."

This left an awkward silence to linger between the group, the only sound in the area being that of the crackling fire that existed only upon the top log of the pile. The statement was originally reassuring, yes, but the way that Yang had shaped it into what almost sounded like a threat made the other girls in the group unsure of how to react. Blake squeezed Yang's hand in a way that told her that she did a good job but in a way that she did not do good enough to receive verbal praise. Weiss' facial expression frequently shifted between annoyed, exasperated, and confused. She responded in a hesitant voice, "I was going to thank you, but now I don't know what I should do."

Ruby, meanwhile, had her attention trained once again on the fire pit in the middle of them. Blake saw out of the corner of her eye the sudden movement within the metal construct. The single log that sat atop the rest of the pile broke down the center, causing both halves and the fire attached to them to fall into the bottom of the pit. For a moment, the only light coming from the fire pit was of the plume of ashes and cinders released by the broken log, but after a few moments, fire began to spread to the logs directly above the flames. While the flame did not instantly engulf the pile, it did spread enough so that the previously dark patio became sufficiently illuminated and the awkward tension that existed between the group dissipated.

"So," Yang drawled, dismissing the inability of her other teammates to respond to her previous statement. Blake found Yang's arm coming to rest over her shoulders, causing her lean back into the limb. From where she sat, she could only just see Weiss' eyes above the fire—she was able to see the relative calm that had spread to her features. "How did you get into Beacon, anyway?" She then saw Weiss' gaze to form into a glare of sorts. Yang must have noticed this as well because she added, "I'm not making fun of you. Honestly, I'm just wondering. You said that you worked hard to get into Beacon and I'm pretty sure that you of all people wouldn't call bribing the school 'hard work.'"

However, this amendment did not cause Weiss' look to soften. "Are you implying that I habitually bribe people?" She didn't seem as though she was angry—Blake knew what an irate Weiss looked like after the first few days she had attended the academy. This was a look of annoyance; rather, exasperation at a repeated stereotype she had become associated with. Blake was intimately familiar with this sort of look.

Yang shrugged. "All I know is that when we couldn't get a seat at Flaherty's, you just walked in and suddenly we had a table." Blake felt as though Yang was unwittingly instigating an argument, but she wouldn't do anything about it. Wanting to reduce the amount of conflict that existed in her life if only by a marginal percent, the young Faunus had the urge to halt Yang's speech even though it had already ceased. Unfortunately, she could tell that Yang was sincere in her stated curiosity. There was not a hint of malice in her tone, simply unintentional disrespect.

Rather than the expected reprimand from the girl in white, Weiss rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, looking over to the girl beside her out of the corner of her eye. "Yang, I didn't bribe anyone in the restaurant." Judging by the shift in Yang's position, Blake was sure that her partner was about to request some sort of elaboration, but couldn't due to Weiss' proactivity in supplying a further explanation. "I did, however, tell them that they were waiting on a member of the Schnee family."

Yang went back to her regular, reclined position, seemingly sated in her curiosity. Be it a show of gratitude to Yang for ceasing her accidentally rude inquiries or her own cynical desire to move as far away from the lingering pain of the visions, Blake pulled her chair closer to Yang's, closing the infinitesimal distance that already existed between them. She wanted to shut her eyes, relax by the fire, and forget about everything that could possibly cause stress. Once again, this event by the fire that was intended on being relaxing evaded its original purpose. "And," Weiss sighed, bringing the attention of Blake and Yang back to her, "I might have threatened them to an extent." Blake was able to feel her girlfriend's position change as her head shot up to look at Weiss. The heiress sighed once again, obviously unhappy with what she had done. "I told them that it would be in poor form to deny a customer who could potentially run them out of business at a moment's notice."

Ruby, who had been so entranced by the growing flame that she looked to have not been paying attention, finally perked up at this confession. "Seriously?" she asked. Blake didn't have to look across the fire to know that the young girl's eyes had widened in surprise. However, the Faunus did open her eyes to see Weiss' reaction. She had frowned and tilted her head so it could rest on her arm that had been propped on the chair's armrest.

Unlike her sister's relatively calm and concerned reaction, Yang cheered, "Alright, Weiss!" The outburst had been so unexpected by everybody else that it startled even the contrite Weiss and the stoic, reserved Blake. Something about this response made Blake think that it was not Yang reacting impulsively. The shift in Weiss' demeanor from regretful to bewildered was not missed and allowed Blake to rationalize her partner's exclamation as purposefully disarming. The exclamation of her name by Ruby did not dissuade the blonde from continuing. "I knew you had it in you! Show 'em who's boss and don't take 'no' for an answer! I knew there was a reason I tolerate you."

Blake smiled. Though the other two might not have seen it, Yang was watching Weiss intently, making sure that she had remedied the problem plaguing the heiress—Ruby may have, but judging by the frequent, worried glances she gave to Weiss, she had not. For the briefest of moments, Weiss' expression looked to hint at happiness, but this was quickly masked by over-exaggerated façades of indignation and annoyance. Although, if one were to look close enough as Blake did, one would see a very faint smirk that was equally as unwanted by the heiress as it was amused. "Oh, so you tolerate me. Is that it?" This uncharacteristic quip from Weiss only served to betray her appearance of composure, but Blake doubted the audacious manner of speech was an accident.

It was apparent that Yang thought much the same. "Yeah, I think 'tolerate' fits pretty well for what I was going for." Blake felt Yang softly shake her shoulder with the arm that she had been leaning on. "What do you think? 'Tolerate' works well here, right?" Incredibly amused with the conversation but not wanting to be subjected to any potential anger from either party, she simply smiled and shrugged. "See?" Yang looked back to Weiss. "Even she agrees with me. And she _reads_!"

"And that's implying that you don't?" Weiss returned.

"Pffft. Not if I can avoid it."

Ruby, though a bit late with her response, finally adjusted to the flow of the conversation, no longer worried about Weiss' feelings that seemed unfazed. "And that's not fair, using Blake as your backup. Of course she's going to agree with you. She's your girlfriend!"

While Blake was comfortable with her relationship with Yang, hearing Ruby remark on it in such a matter-of-fact way made heat rise to the young Faunus' cheeks. Fortunately, Yang was there to take the group's focus off of her. "You're right that she's my girlfriend. She's the best girlfriend in the world and backs me up whenever I need help. There's nothing unfair about Blake being the best girlfriend ever." Unfortunately, as much as Blake adored the blonde's sunny attitude, the brawler's inclination towards compliments only exacerbated the blush. "Besides," she began again, "you don't see me complaining when you try to get Weiss to back you up."

Due to the orange glow cast on the faces of those sitting around the fire on this notably cloudy night, any sign of a blush or other coloration to one's facial features could not be seen. However, Blake didn't need to see any red tint to know that the two girls opposite herself were flustered. Between Weiss breaking her perfect posture by crossing her arms and slumping into her chair and Ruby's wide-eyed petrification followed by an exclamation of "W-We're not dating!", Blake was fairly certain that Yang had rendered the two speechless.

Yang had stated on many occasions that teasing her sister and Weiss was an incredibly enjoyable experience—especially so if she could tease them both simultaneously. This meant that the blonde would not show mercy. "I know you're not." This seemed to ease the embarrassment on the parts of Ruby and Weiss for a moment, but Blake knew better. "You two can't even get through a conversation anymore without fumbling over your words or getting angry at each other before running away. I don't expect you to be dating because I know you're too afraid to." She added, "Chickens."

That was a challenge if Blake had ever heard one. It was as if the two girls on the other side of the fire became frozen in time, unmoving from their already flustered state. Slowly, gradually, at an agonizingly-sluggish pace, Ruby and Weiss' respective eyes shifted from gawking at Yang to looking in directions opposite each other. Blake knew that the response only confirmed Yang's statement, causing the toothy grin that now adorned the blonde's features, but perhaps the teasing had gone too far.

The current reaction, although expected and humorous, looked to be a true point of embarrassment for the other partnership. In her own relationship, Blake knew that Yang wouldn't react in such a way whatsoever and that her own reaction would not be as severe as this. But they were not Ruby and Weiss—similar in some regards, perhaps, but never the same. This is why she leaned into Yang to get her attention before giving her a pleading look that silently asked to rectify the situation.

To Yang's credit, her ability to be quick-witted in a conversation proved to be exceptionally efficient in calming the other two down. "By the way, Weiss, you never really answered my question." The statement disarmed her previous challenge and was said so nonchalantly that it both impressed Blake and brought back Weiss' attention in the form of a wary, yet curious raise of an eyebrow. "You know," Yang implored, "'How'd you get into Beacon and stuff?'"

Weiss, having still not completely recovered from the previous degrees of flustered that she had found herself in, cleared her throat in an attempt to compose herself. She began, "How I was accepted into Beacon is not anything particularly extraordinary." This garnered a flat, goading look from Yang. She sighed. "Alright, if you must know, I had to request an evaluation because I did not attend a previous combat school. When the representative from the academy came for the evaluation, I was asked a series of questions about my combat style and then was given the opportunity to prove myself. Needless to say, I passed."

Once again, the only sound on the patio came from the crackling fire, the other three girls waiting expectantly for any sort of elaboration. It quickly became apparent that there would be no such explanation, causing Yang to ask, "Is that it?"

"Yeah," Ruby chimed in, "you didn't tell us anything about the test. Was it hard? What happened?"

"Of course it wasn't hard!" Immediately after saying this, Weiss caught herself, changing her expression quickly from irritated to incredibly calm and neutral. She looked to Ruby and quickly said, "I apologize for my outburst. It was out of turn." She then turned back towards the partnership opposite herself, adopting the same disinterested look as before. "To answer her second question, he seemed to give a fairly standard test of my combat abilities. This was then followed by more specialized tests to gauge my semblance and competence with a sword. Nothing was out of the ordinary. There really is not much to tell."

"Huh," Yang began, "I never would have expected Weiss Schnee of all people to turn down the chance to brag about herself." Blake sighed. She thought that Yang would have ceased her teasing remarks after Weiss proved that she was willing to be compliant.

"Will you stop?" Apparently, Weiss held similar sentiments. The glare the heiress sent seemed to pacify the blonde. However, this glare did not falter even after Yang finished her flagrant roll of the eyes. "If you're not satisfied with my answer, why don't you regale us with your own tale of how you fought your way into Beacon?"

While Blake felt that Weiss was justified in her annoyance with Yang to some degree, it would be wrong to say that the young Faunus did not want to reprimand the girl in white for the way she had responded to her girlfriend. But, once again, Yang was there to keep Blake from saying something she would have regretted. "Fine," Yang shrugged. "I guess I deserve it after the stuff I put you two through today." Even with her acceptance of what was perceived as punishment, Yang was still able to incite a glare from her sister and an ever harsher scowl from Weiss at the mention of the incident earlier in the day.

"Never mention that again," Weiss growled.

Ruby shook her head, never disengaging eye contact with her sister. "Never ever. You're a heavy sleeper. If you talk about it again, that'll be the end of your hair."

Even Blake had to admit that the threat from Ruby was intimidating. The thought alone of Ruby's competence wielding the sharp blade of Crescent Rose was disconcerting now. Suddenly, it was Yang's turn to be speechless, her eyes having widened considerably at the statement. "Uhh," she began, "I was only kidding?" This didn't have any effect on the expressions of either girl. She tried laughing nervously and still didn't get a response. "Should I answer the question?" Blake figured it was all Yang could think of for a response that was within the bounds of her natural repertoire of conversational distractions. Ruby slightly and slowly nodded her head—an incredibly menacing and bone-chillingly out-of-character sight to say the least.

"Well," Yang began hesitantly, "it really wasn't anything special." The glares from the two girls told her to keep going. "I mean, all I did was pass my finals and they let me in." The severe looks from the opposite partnership did not cease. The unresponsiveness of the duo caused Yang to become so uncomfortable that it seemed to have allowed for the following outburst. "What do you want from me? I graduated from Signal! Everybody who goes there ends up at Beacon anyway!"

Every second that passed by in silence seemed to increase the desperation in Yang's plea of unimportance exponentially, or so it seemed to the young Faunus. Soon after Yang's rise in volume, a charred log in the fire pit crumbled, spitting embers and ashes into the obscured sky. Blake had feared that this would have acted as a trigger—a trigger that could unleashed the barely contained anger of Weiss and the uncharacteristic annoyance of Ruby. However, this occurrence seemed to have the polar opposite effect on the group. At the sound of the crumbling, Yang and Ruby burst into laughter while Weiss sat back in her seat with a genuinely happy smirk gracing her visage. To say Blake was confused would be an understatement.

"Way to go Weiss!" Yang managed to cheer in between bouts of laughter.

Ruby gave Weiss one of the widest smiles Blake had ever seen on the young leader. "Yeah! I never knew you were such an awesome actor." Blake felt lost. "I almost believed you were mad at Yang for a second there." Blake had to ask herself if they really looked angry. From what she remembered, they did, but the statement that they weren't utterly confounded her.

"You have to pull inspiration from somewhere." Weiss' dismissive and seemingly flippant response made Yang begin laughing even harder and caused Blake to knit her brows.

Now that they mentioned it, they did seem different after Yang's reference to how she found the two on the couch earlier. While Weiss did seem angry—enough to make the young Faunus believe that she actually was—she didn't react how Blake thought she would. She expected instant scolding and the conversation to erupt into a veritable yelling match. However, the fact that these were contradicted with laughter at an inside joke that she had been unaware of made her feel out of the loop and admittedly not as intelligent as she believed she was.

With her expression being a mix of both confusion and disappointment in herself, Blake subconsciously nestled closer into the warmth of the figure beside her as she watched the flames in an attempt to rid her mind of these negative thoughts. She barely felt Yang shift her position so that she could look at the Faunus' reaction. While she tried not to focus on anything else in the area, Blake noticed that Yang's exuberant, rejuvenating laughter had ceased. She moved away just enough so that she could look up and observe Yang's expression while still being surrounded by the safety of the blonde's hold. With a single glance into the lilac orbs of Yang, Blake saw the same emotions she was feeling now afflicting her girlfriend as well. However, uncertainty and self-depreciation paled in severity to the amount of worry that was communicated through Yang's unwavering gaze.

Blake did believe that the concern shown was absolutely heart-warming, but she felt that the amount shown was hindering Yang's evening. She tried her best to smile—or at the very least, smirk—to appease the blonde, but her efforts did not achieve the desired result. However, it is not to say that Blake disliked the resulting action. What had been merely an arm draped over Blake's shoulder became a one-armed hug that was otherwise unnoticeable to the other two at the fire. The girl in black quickly gave up on her attempts to pacify the blonde's concern, easing into the hold and silently thanking her for being there and keeping the action low-key.

In a matter of seconds, Ruby's laughter became infrequent snickers. Just as Blake was about to dismiss the entire situation as a simple lapse in awareness, a question was posed—one that would unintentionally keep Blake quiet and disappointed in herself. "Hey, Blake?" Ruby asked. "How'd you get into Beacon? I don't remember you saying where you went before you got in."

Ruby did not intend on causing Blake to recall more painful memories than she already had. Blake knew this, but was still affected by the insignificant question. Rather than thinking ahead for a diplomatic manner of dismissing the question, Blake attempted to speak first. However, between the uncertainty she had for how she could possibly respond and the fact that her voice had come to fail her after a period of inactivity, all she could respond with was a weak, "Umm." While it sounded as though she was going to elaborate, she did not intend on doing so. She was not particularly proud of how she had gotten accepted into the academy. With this added to the prior bout of disappointment in herself for not being part of the group, she honestly did not feel like talking.

Fortunately, Yang was there to save the day. "Hey, can we stop talking about school for a second? My head's starting to hurt from thinking about it again." Though Yang had a playful expression of feigned agony directed at Ruby, the serious gaze she was sending Weiss was not missed. Blake couldn't begin to guess what that look asked of the heiress, but she was preemptively thankful anyways if it proved to be even the least bit helpful in allowing her to avoid a question about her unsavory past.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Yang is right." Weiss, keeping an expertly calm expression, turned to Ruby. "Can we find something else to discuss?" Though the two of them might have had their differences in the past, Blake made a mental note that she would have to thank Weiss later for her diversion. Because her head was leaning against Yang and thusly caused her sight to be at an angle, Blake was barely able to see the pained, contemplative expression that Ruby held as she tried to find a new topic of conversation.

This thoughtful demeanor was quickly replaced with a grin very much similar to one of Yang's signature mischievous expressions. As Ruby tilted her head back up to look towards her sister, Yang tensed. Blake found her partner only just calm enough to seem happy and content, but the fact that the hug she had been giving had become a sort of death grip, Blake was almost certain Yang was scared of something. "No," the blonde said in a stern, reprimanding voice.

Ruby, however, was completely unfazed. "What?" she asked in a patronizingly sweet tone. "I was just going to say that I need to get some more polish for Crescent Rose. Maybe order some more ammo while I'm at it." While Blake had been unsure earlier in the day of her ability to read others, she knew without a doubt that Ruby was lying in this instance. Between the singsong voice which the young leader used to detail her plan and the hard glare that Yang was shooting her, Blake was positive that ulterior motives were in play.

Apparently, Weiss thought the same. "What is going on between you two?"

Yang didn't bother taking her gaze off of her sister to look at the heiress, choosing instead to curtly state, "Nothing," while continuing her glare. This caused Weiss to grind her teeth in frustration for some odd reason.

"Oh!" Ruby gasped, creating a blatant, false tone of surprise. "So, you don't want me to tell—"

Whether it was because Yang felt that a more intimidating posture was required for her denial or if it was due to the fact that her body temperature began to skyrocket alongside her level of anger and she became conscious of it, the blonde released Blake from her hold. Ruby was cut off by Yang with another quick, "No." This time, however, the response seemed much more defensive and almost panicked to an extent.

Blake had seen Yang distressed , overwhelmed, and in various stages of negativity—albeit only for brief periods of time—yet "panicked" was not a word she would normally use to describe the exuberant youth. But there was nothing normal about the way Yang was trying to truncate this conversation. It was evident that she was keeping a secret and Blake would have been fine with this, seeing as how she and Ruby spoke about the issue as though it was an inside joke. However, Yang was not merely keeping a secret, she was enforcing the fact that it was a secret. This is what caused the inquisitive look from Blake and the subsequent, appeasing touch of a hand that began to calm Yang.

"Fine," Ruby dismissed in a way oddly reminiscent of an exasperated Weiss. "Then I won't say what I need to get, but I need to get some _stuff_ downtown." Yang's scowl became more cautionary, just awaiting any stimulus to bring it back to its previous levels of anger. This response from Ruby and reaction from Yang caught Blake's interest. Before, she was content to let whatever was going on between the two of them go as it seemed to be a matter pertaining to their family if she had to guess. Now she was intrigued as to what could cause this drastic change in personality. "Does anybody want to go tomorrow? I kinda want to get it out of the way before it's too late." Her emphasis on "before it's too late" caused Yang's look to harden once again—something Blake took note of.

This was the opportunity she needed. She nudged Yang with her elbow, causing the heated expression to cool and form into a single raised eyebrow at the Faunus. Blake did her best to send a hopeful smile towards the figure beside her, silently asking if they could go. Despite the crowds and the intermittent anguish of their last trip, there was something about the trip that Blake believed to have caused her and Yang to grow closer. She wanted to replicate this experience as best she could, but at the same time, she wanted to figure out why Yang seemed so hesitant at the mention of another trip.

Blake found Yang's visage to droop in resignation for a fraction of a second before it was replaced with a sunny smile. "Alright," she drawled, "you don't have to tell me twice." It would have seemed to her awkward in this instance to laugh aloud at Yang's reaction and teasing, so she instead smiled and shook her head as she leaned into the warm body beside her.

"If everyone else is going, I might as well come too." Weiss, who, much like Blake, would have normally preferred peaceful solitude over being around loquacious others prior to this break from school, seemed relatively calm and level-headed. Perhaps her view on what could be considered enjoyable had changed. Blake certainly hoped this was the case, for the unrestrained happiness now emanating from Ruby's smile was something that needed to be more common. But this smile, in this particular instance, could not last. "I've read about an art exhibit here in Vale that I wish to attend. Though I've had the chance to attend before, I think now is an acceptable time to follow through with it. We _are_ supposed to be enjoying ourselves, after all."

With a piteous, crestfallen gasp of "What?", Ruby became less than enthusiastic about her devised plan of heading into the city once again. "How can you have fun while looking at a bunch of pictures?" Blake did not miss the smug look Yang had but choose not to reprimand her for it.

Weiss, on the other hand, chose to reprimand Ruby for her reaction. "Oh, I'm sorry that there won't be anything for you to shoot while we're there. It just so happens that I like the quiet sometimes. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two from that. Until then, you will just have to gain an appreciation for the arts because you are coming with me." Between the sarcasm and the command, Blake believed that Weiss' reaction had been slightly excessive once again. But at the same time, she could sympathize with the heiress. Had Yang acted in a similar way to her request to go to the book store during their last trip, she might have acted in the same way.

Ruby groaned. What had been expected from the youngest of the group was an argument. This was the case because Blake reasoned that since she had argued earlier in the day, some amount of that animosity might still linger. However, every member of the team was surprised when Ruby said, "Fine, I'll go."

Weiss was the first to regain her composure. "Then it's settled. We will head into town tomorrow. Ruby and I will head to the art exhibit as well as take care of any errands she needs to—"

"Wait," Yang interrupted, much to the chagrin of the speaker. "Ruby, are you sure you want to go to that thing? I thought you hated museums."

Wide-eyed and sufficiently caught off-guard, Ruby began the rapid process of conversational damage control. "No! Of course not!" she assured. "When have I ever said that? I don't remember saying that. Maybe I don't remember because I was too young to!" She began to nervously laugh, causing Weiss' expression to sour in annoyance. Seeing this, Ruby tried a different method of rectifying the situation. "Weiss, I'd love to go with you to the—I mean, I'd enjoy going to the art show with you!" While Ruby was blushing through her attempt at a confident visage, Weiss seemed even more annoyed than usual.

Blake was torn between believing that this Freudian slip was intended or if Ruby was being overly conscious of everything she said when around Weiss. Honestly, she believed it to be a bit of both, but would not judge her leader's awkward attempts at being amiable towards her partner. Blake was in no place to judge either way. Whether she liked it or not, she still felt that she, herself, was still incredibly awkward when around Yang. As Blake was not one to be hypocritical, she simply smiled at the bumbling spectacle not out of malicious mirth, but out of empathy.

Rarely did Weiss seem to stray from phrasings and diction considered formal and proper; however, the uncharacteristic drawl of "Okay," could be overlooked just this once as the situation seemed to be difficult for her to deal with. "Anyways," she began, backtracking to before Yang's interjection, "Ruby and I will go to the art exhibit and run the errand that she needs taken care of. Do you two have anything planned or will you be accompanying us?"

Something about the way Weiss asked this made Blake feel as though the heiress was hoping that her answer would allow the two of them some form of privacy. Of course, this rationalization could have spawned from the fact that she had found the two sleeping against each other earlier in the day as well as the multiple, small instances during this fireside discussion that indicated their infatuation towards each other. Yet her suspicions were confirmed through the brief, relieved smile that Weiss had after Yang said, "Yeah, we've got some stuff planned. I told Blake I'd show her around—take her sightseeing and all." Though she had never asked about sightseeing in particular, Blake was fine with Yang's explanation that would vouch for her own motives for going to Vale again.

"Well, I guess it's settled then," Ruby stated in a tone so distant from her previously alarmed state that Blake humored the thought that that the panic was again but an act. "So, when do we wanna go tomorrow? I'm thinking noon is a good time. Who's up for it?"

Blake approved of the idea because it only created more similarities between their first trip and this next one. She also believed that Yang would be fine with this decision due to her affinity for sleep. Weiss, however, objected. "If we want to go to the art exhibit, we will need to leave fairly early. I'd say between eight and nine."

"What?" Yang exclaimed. It seemed as though Blake's assumption about the blonde's preferred time of departure was correct.

Weiss scoffed. "Ruby and I need to leave early if we want to get into the exhibit. If we leave at noon, we will be lucky if we able to get inside by seven." She looked to her partner. "Are you willing to leave early?"

"S-sure," Ruby stammered.

"Either way," Weiss continued, "if you aren't willing to wake up early enough, you have that thing—that motorbike—"

"Bumblebee," Yang corrected.

Blake watched as Weiss silently looked at Yang, visibly annoyed and presumably wondering if she was being serious. The Faunus knew her girlfriend was adamant about the name of her vehicle, but Weiss didn't seem like the sort of person who would name an inanimate object—in fact, she couldn't remember a time when the heiress referred to her sword as Myrtenaster outside of being asked its name. "No," Weiss said simply. "I'm not calling it that. Whatever _you_ want to call it, you can take it into the city if you can't wake up in time to leave." Yang made a show of rolling her eyes but not disagreeing. This, to Blake, was a great show of self-restraint on Yang's part; she could see the blonde arguing the semantics of her bike's name to no end, so this was a welcome result. Weiss huffed. "I'm glad we're in agreement, then."

A noncommittal hum came from the sisters. This was followed by silence that was only broken by the crackling of the diminishing wood in the fire. With every team member's nerves calmed by the lack of conversation and accompanying arguments, they could simply watch the fire like they had originally intended on doing. Ruby and Weiss reclined in their respective seats, the heiress letting out an unfettered, content sigh while the young leader grinned widely as she watched the flame's erratic motions. The warmth around Blake seemed to intensify comfortably as Yang's undivided attention was focused solely on her.

Blake found that Yang began to lean against her, moving so that their heads were nearly level with each other. "Hey," Yang whispered. When she looked to her partner, she found the blonde to have a slight smile on her face. "Sorry that I didn't ask for your opinion on what we're doing tomorrow. Is there something you want to do instead? I mean, looking at buildings might get a little old after a while."

Blake's answer would have been in the negative had she felt the need to speak at all. Because both the figure and the fire were so warm and because she felt at ease around everyone else due in large to Yang's unnecessary apology, Blake felt as though she could just lean against Yang and doze off. To answer her question, however, Blake shrugged, earning a short laugh from the blonde. "I know you like to keep to yourself, but this has to be a record—even for you." Blake rolled her eyes at the comment. She had nothing to say; rather, she felt that there wasn't anything she wanted to say. She was happy with the way things were and felt as though talking would ruin the serenity of the moment. However, Yang's speech seemed to only improve the situation. The warm figure hummed a low, content note that resonated throughout Blake's form and almost put her to sleep.

Blake's unhindered, unrestrained Faunus ears twitched at something that was coming. Whatever was coming, however, she could not guess.

The reason why it is stated that Blake almost fell asleep is because a certain white-haired girl, in her uncharacteristic, placated daze, asked a question that caused Yang to quickly sit up in her seat and Ruby to become momentarily paralyzed. "Ruby," she began, "if you don't mind me asking, how did you two get this house? It doesn't seem as though two students with no visible records of employment could afford a plot of land this large on the fringes of the capital." While Blake could understand why such a question would otherwise be perceived as ill-mannered, Weiss' genuine curiosity came across expressly. But even the expressions of Yang and Ruby were far beyond standard reactions to any ill-mannered question.

Because Ruby had been asked the question, she had to be the one who answered. Unfortunately, in her disabled state, all she could say was "Umm…"

This caused both Weiss and Blake to sit up, both for different reasons. Blake had to sit up lest she fall behind her partner's form due to her now sitting on the edge of her seat. Weiss distanced herself from the back of her chair, her visage forming into a concerned expression that rivaled Yang's own with a noticeable amount of self-loathing introspection occurring within her mind. Instead of going on the defensive or quickly ending the conversation like Blake thought she would have, Yang sighed. "Don't worry, Weiss," she began, "the story behind it is a bit of a downer and Ruby was probably hit the hardest by it."

Because the fire obscured Weiss and Ruby midway past their torsos, Blake was only able to see Weiss' eyes widen for a second before her visage hardened and she moved her arm to do something. Whatever action she did, Blake could not see. What she could see was Ruby's expression becoming frozen for a moment before softening to the point where she was able to give a faint smile to the heiress.

"Honestly, I've been expecting one of you to ask that since we got here. I still don't think I was ready for it, but I'll try to explain as best as I can." Ruby's eyes closed and her head sunk in a small form of bow. Whatever was going on, Blake felt the mood of this friendly chat by the fire had suddenly changed into one that she had experienced only once before with the blonde.

Back in the park's alcove, when she first asked the blonde whether or not she agreed with the prospect of them dating, Yang became incredibly reflective and uncharacteristically vulnerable on an emotional level, similar to how she was becoming by the fire. Looking back on this instance, Blake called upon her memories of how she was able to allay some of the negativity that afflicted Yang. She moved her hand over Yang's, causing the blonde to smile softly.

She took a deep breath. "Okay," she began, causing Ruby to visibly tense and Weiss to look over at her. "So, we've lived here since we were kids. Back then, we lived with mom and dad." Her voice hitched just before the last three words, halting her speech immediately after the sentence. Unfortunately, her reaction was relatively tame compared to Ruby's response. The girl had slowly brought her legs up into her chair so that she could shrink into as small a ball as possible as she buried her face in her knees. She wasn't crying—rather, she wasn't sobbing, for Blake could not hear any noise coming from the normally chipper leader.

Blake squeezed Yang's hand, hoping that it would silently convey the message that she was there for her. It seemed as though it worked to some extent, but she knew all too well that memories, after being repressed and kept a secret for too long, can decimate whatever visage of stoicism and calm that are attempted once they are brought into the light be it for better or worse. In Yang's case, Blake could just see with her augmented sight that the normally cheerful, lilac eyes were becoming subject to tears.

"Yang," Weiss began, appropriately cautious for the situation, "you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I can understand if it's a sore subject."

"No," Yang sighed. "You two," she looked to Blake, "deserve answers." She took another deep breath and seemed to wipe a tear from her eye that either didn't exist or was so minute that Blake had not noticed it. "I won't go into the specifics of what happened," the hitching in her voice became a very common occurrence, "but I'll just say that after what happened, Ruby and me inherited the house. We got everything that mom and dad owned through the will and have been living here since."

Enough was enough. Blake pulled Yang into a sideways hug of her own, cradling the blonde head just underneath her chin so that she could ward off any negativity once more. But Yang was strong; she didn't—couldn't—cry while her sister was present. As Blake rubbed her partner's arm, Yang sighed. "Maybe we're acting a little childish. I mean, it's been a few years now. We should be able to get over it, but…" However, she didn't have the means to finish the sentence.

With Weiss being the member of the group sworn to efficiency and lacking in sympathy and with Ruby still curled up in her defensive ball, Blake knew that there was only one person left to console Yang. She tried to speak, but after going so long without using her voice, she was only able to get out a single, slightly raspy, "It's alright."

Though she was not confident in what she said, feeling as though it could have been more effective, Yang reacted positively, moving closer to the young Faunus at the words. While Blake might have argued against it, Yang continued speaking with a cadence no longer indicative of distress. "The reason why we're able to keep it is because we have an uncle who teaches at Signal. Because he basically lives at the school, he agreed to take care of any payments on the house until we graduate from Beacon. After that, he said he'd help a little bit, but not as much."

There was a definite solemnity behind Yang's tone, but her manner of speech seemed to show moderately rapid recovery on her part. Ruby remained in her paralyzed state, having all of Weiss' attention focused on her. She looked to be recovering as well, but much more slowly and subtly than Yang was. If Blake had to guess how she was recovering, she would guess that it was due to whatever Weiss had done with her hand earlier. She had the sneaking suspicion that this was Weiss holding the leader's hand through the painful memories, but she chose not to remark on this for their sake. Though telling Yang about the supposed action could expedite her return to normalcy, it would only worsen the night for the other partnership through Yang's inevitable teasing.

There was something wrong with the air—in the slightest change in air pressure and charge that the Faunus could only just feel. What the cause of this was could not be ascertained, yet Blake's ears twitched nonetheless. She had believed that her previous reaction spawned from the recent conversation, but the fact that her ears twitched again when there wasn't anyone in the group who wished to speak was odd to say the least. What was even more strange was that she knew this feeling in the air somehow. What it came from or why she knew it was beyond her current comprehension.

Yang nuzzled closer, shaking Blake from her thoughts. The Faunus was able to smile softly at the happy expression on her partner's face. When she looked over towards Weiss and Ruby, she found that the previously shaken girl was now jovially conversing with her own partner. The sudden shift in mood caused Blake to question whether or not the previous conversation happened or not—whether or not this was all a figment of her traumatized imagination. It is to say that the conversation that brought about those unfortunate memories did, in fact, occur and that the true cause for the shift in mood was the sisters' signature optimism and positivity shining through in times of great distress.

All was right with the group for the time being with their uncomfortable sentiments and jarring memories buried well beneath the surface of their content demeanors. However, a small shiver from Yang acted as a prelude for what was to come. This shiver was so subtle that it could not have been noticed by either Ruby or Weiss. Blake, on the other hand, was close enough to have felt it. When she looked to her partner, she found that she, too, had a similarly confused expression. "What was that?" the blonde asked. "It felt like something fell on me."

Blake's ears involuntarily flicked again, forewarning what was to come.

It was then that Ruby flinched. "Did anybody else feel that?" Weiss looked at her as though the young leader was simply imagining things when she reacted to whatever the stimulation was as well. "Weiss?" Ruby asked. "Did you feel it too?"

Before Blake could ask what it was they were talking about, she felt something land on her sleeveless shoulder and begin rolling down her arm. Instantly, she knew what it was that had bothered them. "Huh," she hummed, both in wonderment and as an attempt to get her voice back, "I guess it's raining."

It did not take long at all for those four drops to become a few more and for those few more to become many more. Before long, the four were caught outside in the beginnings of what seemed to be a simple rainstorm. "Yang!" Ruby shouted. "Why did you pick tonight to have the fire?"

All members of Team RWBY were in various states of shock as to how they could react in this new weather. Instinctually, Yang pulled her jacket off and held it above herself so that her hair could not get wet. "How was I supposed to know it was going to rain?"

Weiss' plea of "Can we just get inside?" was ignored by the sisters while they continued their argument.

"Did you even look at the sky?"

"Yeah! There wasn't a cloud as far as I could see! It didn't look like it was going to rain!"

"Well you should have looked harder!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Can you two just shut up and get out of the rain?" Weiss, as outwardly caring and selflessly benevolent as she usually was, yelled this at the bickering sisters as she bolted up the stairs and underneath the very slight awning created by the house's rain gutter. There were no grumbles of disappointment following this order. Yang, unsurprisingly, was unable to complete the task before Ruby could. For a moment, the leader's eyes opened in sheepish realization before she disappeared in a flurry of rose petals that shimmered in the pouring rain. It was not a second after she disappeared that the sound of the front door closing resounded throughout the area, followed by Weiss' exasperated shout of, "Ruby!"

Blake, lacking her bow, had to force her ears down against her head so that she could avoid rain getting in them. This created an odd auditory sensation. On one hand, she could clearly hear the incessant pattering of the weather against already forming pools through her human ears, while to her Faunus ears that were effectively sealed, it sounded as if she was indoors already and hearing the storm through the roof. Unfortunately, this made the normally enjoyable pitch of Yang's voice sound uncomfortable. "Come on!" she barely heard her yell. Nevertheless, she hurried along beside Yang up to the house.

She was not surprised to see Weiss nearly panicking because of the rain making her hair wet. Much like Yang, she seemed to be somewhat vain when it came to her hair. In actuality, Blake thought that Weiss was incredibly vain when it came to her hair and clothing, but for the sake of comparison and not insulting her girlfriend, she could be said to be somewhat vain. Honestly, Blake didn't understand their aversion to rain. Other than when it got in her ears, she quite enjoyed the rain. In a way, she considered it to be universally humbling, bringing everyone under its influence into a more reserved mood. If she had the choice, she would have wanted to stand outside for a little while longer. Unfortunately, it was not the rain that halted these thoughts.

Preemptively, Blake's Faunus traits flattened themselves even further against her head to protect against the coming sound. She had been automatically following her girlfriend when a resonating boom rang through the air. This sound only caused the blonde figure to speed up but caused the raven-haired girl to become immobile. At the sounding of this noise, what had been a tolerable rainstorm instantly became a torrential downpour, soaking Blake entirely.

She couldn't move. That sound made her remember. That sound could be louder—will be louder. That sound was horrible. That sound was mortifying. That sound was death.

"Blake!"

And yet she couldn't save them. She didn't know their names and even if they were shouting them at her so that she could remember, she couldn't hear them over that blasted noise.

"Blake!"

There were so many coming after her—a veritable sea of humanity as far as she was concerned. And all she could do was wait. She could only stand in place and wait for what was to come. It was justified; truly it would be, for she had been a coward.

"Blake! Come on!"

What was the point in running? If she did, then the sound would only break her again, allowing them to catch her. Maybe if she stood still and waited for swift justice, she would be less of a coward for just a moment.

Yang growled. "Alright. If that's the way it's gonna be." Her voice was closer now, but Blake couldn't hear, her mind being too focused on the thunder that had only sounded once. She was shaken from her unfortunate memories by her body being moved, not by herself by another. Yang had taken the initiative by lifting her off of the ground. Normally, Blake would protest due to the lack of control, but she was in no such state to do so now. Instead, she subconsciously threw her arms around Yang's neck as she was moved along the porch in a form of bridal carry.

As the lights of the front of the house came into her blurred vision, Blake was able to return to the realm of reality. She barely noticed the front door coming into view before it was pushed open and she was brought through. When she was finally out of the rain, her senses came back to her in full. However, this recovery coincided with Yang setting her down. In this way, her partner angled her so that Blake could stand on her own without removing the arms from her neck. The young Faunus, having her senses shocked in light of the numerous events that happened only seconds prior, found herself wrapped in a hug by the warm and oddly dry figure. "Blake, what happened out there?"

Instead of answering her partner verbally, she returned the hug with greater fervor. She was incredibly thankful that Yang had done what she had and there was no possible way to express this other than through this hug. She wanted to say something, but words couldn't come to mind. It seemed as though Yang wasn't bothered by the lack of speech because she did not relent from the hold, choosing to comb her fingers through Blake's hair. Due to her ever-present aura, whatever amount of water that had wetted her hair became nonexistent through Yang's aura-heated fingers. Blake also found that residual rain clinging to her skin and clothes evaporated with the proximity of the hold. She doubted that Yang could understand in this moment just how thankful she was to have her by her side.

Both became aware of the soft padding of muted footsteps. With speed rivaling that of Ruby, Weiss had changed into her pajamas and was now walking towards the two of them whilst drying the ends of her hair with a towel. Somehow, she looked immaculate despite the undeniable fact that she had been caught in the downpour. Without the slightest concern for cordiality, she began, "Ruby told me that you had the means to check the weather. Care to explain yourself?"

Blake broke away from the hold so that her partner could respond and so that she could take off her shoes. "The…means?" Yang parroted. It took a few moments, but soon enough, her eyes widened in realization. "Right…huh, I guess I forgot about that."

Weiss stopped her drying motions so her glare could become even more scathing than it already was. "What did you forget this time?"

"I got myself a laptop for some reason before I left for Beacon." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "I guess that I forgot that I had it." Weiss looked as though she was about to scold Yang on what could have been her incompetence, but she never had the chance because Yang continued. "And," she laughed nervously, "I never exactly opened it either."

In a word, Weiss looked to be utterly baffled by this piece of information, causing an expression that seemed to ask the questions of "What?", "Really?", and "Seriously?" simultaneously. Instead of asking any of these questions or berating Yang, Weiss simply stared at the blonde for a few seconds before saying, "Okay, I think I've had enough of today. You two have a good night. Just don't bother me—at least hold off on it until tomorrow." As she walked back towards the hallway, still drying her hair, she could be heard grumbling something pertaining to the irrationality of forgetting about owning a computer. She quickly knocked on the door of her shared room. "Ruby, are you decent yet?" She must have gotten a positive response because she headed into her room seconds later, leaving Blake and Yang to themselves.

Yang continued to stare at the hallway with a confused expression on her face. "What's her problem? It's just rain."

She was right—though, not on the desired purpose of her question. It was only raining now, so there was no reason to be on edge, waiting for another clap of thunder. Blake relaxed, if only marginally. "You're one to talk," she quipped, not entirely confident in her manner of speech, but sure enough that Yang would appreciate the banter.

"Hey, you didn't see me complaining when my hair got wet."

"I didn't get the chance to because you pulled your jacket over yourself before it could." Yang sent her both a smirk and a glare—a playfully challenging gesture if there ever was one. "What? Are you scared of a little water?" Surprisingly, Blake's mood had lightened to the point where the storm brewing outside no longer was of any current concern.

"No!" Yang argued. "It's just that if I got my hair wet, do you know how long it would take for me to dry it all out?"

If Blake had to answer, she would have guessed that it would have taken only a couple of minutes with a towel and her aura. However, answering was not on her mind at the moment. She found Yang's denial of a fear of water was perhaps too overzealous. While she did not believe Yang to be afraid of water, she knew that Yang was, at the very least, annoyed by it. This is why Blake made a conscious effort to keep her demeanor level and stoic as she assumed control of her Faunus ears. Thankfully, they had not gotten water inside them; though, there was some that could be felt on the fur outside. Yang didn't seem to notice until the last second that Blake flicked her ears towards her, sending a small spray of water her way.

Yang's reaction was indicative of definite annoyance rather than definite fear. She simply stood there, drops of water now dripping down one side of her face as her smirk dissolved so that a glare could take over her visage. "Jerk," she simply said. This was then followed by the smirk returning in full Yang fashion. "That's cheating. You could have warned me that we were going to have a water fight."

Blake smirked back. "Well, were not. It's not much of a battle if I've already won."

Yang narrowed her eyes, creating an over-exaggerated serious expression. "Just you wait, Blake Belladonna," she began, "I'll get my vengeance yet. When you're least expecting it, I'll be there to rain on your parade."

There were a few futile seconds where Blake believed that she could keep her composure. Due to her fondness for the blonde having grown immensely over these past few days, she couldn't help but feel laughter coming on at the pun. She tried to contain it, she honestly did, but she found the joke far too funny than it actually was and laughed uncontrollably in light of the shared mirth between the two. It was odd for her, laughing. Normally a small giggle or occasional short chuckle could represent her amusement adequately. However, in this moment, hysterical laughter was unavoidable and fortunately contagious.

Soon enough, both girls were laughing together at a joke both circumstantial and unfunny. Blake couldn't remember the last time she laughed this hard but found the experience utterly rejuvenating. After that brief moment of phobic paralysis, it felt good to laugh and relieve the tensions that had amounted all throughout the day. She found that Yang's laughter only kept her going. She rationalized the scene as potentially unbefitting for her regular personality, but she would not complain. It just felt right to laugh.

Their amusement slowly came to a close with neither knowing why they found the joke so funny but both being rid of whatever negative sentiments had managed to linger. With smiles stuck to their faces, they simply looked at each other. Out of the corner of her eye, she could faintly see the time on one of the television room's boxes. While she could not be sure what the specific hour was, the fact that it was in the double digits told her that her day had come to a close too soon once again.

Yang, still recovering from the mirth that winded her, didn't have time to react to Blake approaching and wrapping her in a hug. This action caused the joviality to taper off into a simple, comfortable happiness that was solidified with Yang eventually reciprocating the embrace. "What's this all about?" Yang asked.

"Nothing," Blake sighed. "It's just getting late is all."

"It can't be that late," Yang mused as she looked over to some unseen clock that had not been in Blake's vision. Whatever she saw seemed to cause her shoulders to slump ever so slightly. "Yikes," she said, "I guess it is late." Despite this apparent epiphany, neither moved, causing Yang to remark with a smirk, "What? Do you want me to walk you to your room or something?"

Blake shook her head amusedly and disengaged from the hold. "Thank you for tonight, Yang." She wanted to say more, to elaborate on why she was thanking her, but she couldn't yet. There were some things she was better off not knowing. "Have a good night." She smiled waited for her partner's response.

"Yeah, you too, kitten." Yang smiled softly back at the Faunus. Before Blake could turn away towards her room, Yang began again, "And Blake?" Said girl turned around, a confused but not at all oppositional expression on her face. "If there's something you need to talk about, you can come to me." Blake smiled. "I mean it; I'll be there if you just want to talk about whatever." Yang's expression had taken a solemn, yet hopeful expression that conveyed her absolute conviction in this statement to Blake.

"Thanks," Blake managed to say. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Good night, Yang."

"Good night, Blake." At this, the young Faunus retired to her room, weary from the day but rejuvenated by recent experiences.

In the grand scheme of things, today seemed to have gone fairly well—not amazingly well, but a little better than adequately. As she changed into her nightwear, Blake took comfort in the hope that the arrhythmic sounds of the pouring rain against the roof would allow her to sleep somewhat peacefully. She resigned to her bed, turning off the lamp that sat atop her nightstand and voluntarily becoming shrouded in still darkness. As she drifted off into a quick, shallow, but much-needed slumber, she strained to focus on the hypnotic sounds of the weather, hoping to drown out the memories that still attempted to resurface. To some extent, she was successful as she had managed to fall asleep rather peacefully with a vacantly optimistic expression remaining on her features.

* * *

Every individual knick and cut could be consciously felt as Blake tumbled through the wild hedges and brambles that formed the side of this jagged hill. She was deafened once more, the storm having overtaken her position and bringing her to experience a pain that had never been felt prior or would never be paralleled again. She had escaped from the mob of counter-protesters at a cost far too great for her conscience to deal with. Because she had escaped, she was alone, broken, and scared while on an uncontrollable descent down the wounding slope of the hill on which the flaming factory still burned.

She would tumble many feet down this cliff, unable to grasp at anything or even attempt to slow her descent. The obstacles of varied sizes and the whims of unbiased reality were the only forces that could slow her descent. And they did, abruptly.

On a small, unfortunate landing did the younger Faunus land, bruised, cold, and with a sickening copper taste lingering in her mouth. Yet, she could not pay these worldly ailments any mind. Her spirit and mentality had taken the brunt of the fall. Even as the thunder shook this small platform, she could only remember the terrible wails of her compatriots and the ravenous shouts of the humans. She writhed in agony, not because of the numerous cuts left on her body but because of the haunting sounds that would not give her ears reprieve. Through the ringing and white noise, Blake's ears were able to pick up the faint cries of the other White Fang members still at the factory.

She hadn't come to fight and now she was the only one remaining as far as she knew. She was alone with no soul left to talk to—no one left to ask for assistance. The rain was freezing and her mind did not fare much better. Because she was alone and because she had been the sole survivor, she knew she would be recognized—merited—for what she had done at the factory. But what did she do? A searing amalgam of cowardice, incompetence, and insubordination was her own answer.

Thunder crashed once more, bringing the Faunus back to unbearable reality. The weather had been so strong that it physically shook any dislodged pebbles and stones that happened to be out in the open. Blake rolled onto her back, staring up at the grotesquely grey sky and the unrelenting precipitation that fell from it. Her breathing had become shallow and her mind could not keep from wandering. She could only try to make sense of the situation in her shock but she would never be successful in this endeavor. Lightning streaked across her vision but did not cause her to wince. What did cause her to react was the sound that followed the bolt.

She clamped her eyes shut at the sound. It was a gunshot that never occurred. It was a gate's lock being broken instantly. It was the deafening stampede of humanity running towards her. Thunder was all of these sounds in one to her mind now. No amount of rationalization or repression could deny this fact. A phobia was set in stone and her mind had resorted to a state of shock.

Remnant shook again, causing Blake to turn onto her side and curl into her knees. She was alone. The quick drops of rain stung at her already inflamed flesh. She was cold. The terrible sounds would not leave her alone. She was crying.

Fourteen is an age far too young to be expected to take leadership for a militant protest, control a crowd, and deal with such repercussions for failure. Blake did not see it this way. She saw this instance as both a monumental failure and a squandered opportunity. It had been a chance to take charge and make a difference for once. Her endeavors to add to the reasons for integrated workplaces for the Faunus people had seemed so practical and so possible, yet they were in vain. In this tumultuous world that she volunteered to be a part of, all she wanted right now was to go home. The thunder, however, thought otherwise.

She didn't want to move, but did so instinctively despite her best efforts to remain stationary and afraid. She crawled so piteously towards the hill, hoping to find some sort of respite. As yet another clap of thunder hammered the landscape, she found herself backed up against a low, rock overhang in the hillside. She was safe for now—or so she thought. The storm sounded again, bringing with it a deluge of new irrationalities.

From where she sat huddled against the stone wall, she could only just see the distant, small town through the veil of torrential rain. She needed to see the town at this moment—she needed to see something concrete and undeniably based in reality. Unfortunately, this state that could have allowed for recovery to occur began to inhibit it instead. The overhang disappeared, causing Blake to look up exasperatedly at the unhindered rain. When she looked back to the town, she found that no longer was she on the side of a hill but on top of a cliff. She knew this cliff and the marble bench that sat atop it and this was absolutely disquieting.

The grey sky became black and that small, chimney-dotted town grew to a size rationally incomparable. Blake cupped her Faunus ears as thunder rang out. After opening her eyes from her unintended wince, she saw Vale in the distance. Vale—the city she had wanted to be and the place where she could find a home of sorts—was now completely dark, vacant, and able to exponentially increase the moans and wails that Blake heard from her fallen White Fang comrades. When she looked behind herself, she found a horrific version of Beacon Academy. All of it, from spire to pond, was shrouded in a silhouette of which seemed to be impossible due to the lack of any visible light source. There didn't look to be any windows; if there were any, whatever lights existed in the rooms had been extinguished. It was sickening to see this place that had been founded on a doctrine of justice for all creatures of Dust be subverted by the darkness of the mind. Whether or not it was Blake's mind or the collective minds of a malevolent crowd that was this described darkness, she could not be sure.

She did not care which entity caused her distorted vision, for her attention was focused on something she thought she heard. A slight shift in tonality of a few of the wails caught her attention. A long, loud roar of thunder broke her attention for a moment. However, by the time it ceased, there was no mistaking that she had heard something very different and very disturbing.

Ruby and Weiss were somewhere in pain. Wherever they were would be the same place the groans of the fallen members of the White Fang protest came from. She tried to call out to them, to ask where they were, but found that she could not speak. Her expression was stuck in a wicked parody of her normal stoic demeanor. No matter how hard she tried, she could not convey any sense of emotion other than the slow dripping of tears that were lost anyways amongst the falling rain. The two began chanting her name in much the same way the White Fang members had been.

Had she caused them pain as well? She had warred with the Schnee family for too many years; perhaps she had managed to personally injure Weiss. And Ruby—the innocent, idealistic girl had been nothing but kind to her and all she could manage to do in return was avoid her.

All thoughts ceased with a new voice crying out in pain.

Now Blake wanted to scream. Yang was in trouble; she just knew it. She couldn't tell where her partner was and she needed to help her. She couldn't let Yang of all people become another victim to her incompetence and cowardice. Tears flowed faster as the screams became louder. She could not speak, so she had to search. Blake stood from the bench, braving the storm and the amplified gravity which begged her to stay in her seat. The thunder had become a constant, deafening growl but Blake could deal without her sense of hearing. It only let her know how much pain Yang must be in. She only needed her eyes to search and as she walked towards the edge of the cliff, she peered down into the abyss of darkness. She needed to find Yang.

In a final, titanic show of nature's power, a clap of thunder rattled the sisters' home and caused Blake to awaken in a cold sweat. The first thing that she realized when she came back into cognizance was that her breathing was rapid and shallow. Focusing on a stationary point on the ceiling, she began taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. Eventually, she was able to breathe easily enough that she could afford to pay attention to other attributes of her shaken state. She quickly realized that she was alone—Yang was not there and she could no longer hear her crying out in pain. She noticed that she was cold, or at least she was shivering uncontrollably. Finally, she felt an odd sensation hit her human ear and when she touched whatever it was with her hand, she found that she had been crying.

Blake sat up in her bed, trying to come to terms with the fact that what she had seen was only a dream. Despite it being some time during the night, a soft light came in through the curtained windows of her room. She figured that the rain that continued to fall was reflecting some sort of light source into her room. She didn't know what the light source was, but she needed to try to think of what it could be if only so she could get her mind away from the dream.

Unfortunately, instead of figuring out the source of the light, she simply sat still with her hands folded in her lap as she gazed vacantly into nothingness. She was bewildered, yes, but even that word doesn't begin cover the amount of shock she was being subjected to at this moment. The cries of her teammates—especially Yang's—sounded all too real to her. How could her unconscious mind even come close to replicating sounds that she had never heard before? Yang had never cried out in pain—at least, never around her. The fact that she had heard something impossible and yet sounded so real made her feel ill for a moment.

There was no more thunder, not any more. A gentle rainstorm was all that remained of the storm system that had awakened her and altered her sleep. While the injuries had long since healed, she could still feel the effects of the rapid descent down the hill. She was worried, anxious, and thoroughly uncomfortable for a reason she could not fully comprehend. From this, she knew that she was scared, something she had not been for a long time. However, she was not scared for herself. She was scared for her blissfully young and innocent leader; her promising, skillful, and level-headed teammate; and, most of all, her infinitely important girlfriend. And even worse, she was still afraid for the White Fang. Even though she had separated herself from the organization, she couldn't help but feel sorrow for their transformation into a militant group.

She made a conscious effort to try to feel her surroundings so that she could be sure that a tactile sensation grounded her in reality. She gripped her sheets tighter than she had intended. She knew that these linens which she felt and the tears that ran down her cheeks were very real; she knew that the world she inhabited now was very real.

Blake reasoned that she should be happy in the knowledge that her teammates were safe and unaffected by her previous act of cowardice, but she cried nonetheless. She knew that what had happened in the past could not be changed and she knew that she was doing her best to prevent a similar event from happening, but the fact that she was able to so intricately imagine the screams of her teammates was terrifying.

These memories could not be ignored, no matter how hard Blake tried to focus on the sound of falling rain. She had tried to go back to sleep by forcing her eyes shut and suppressing any and all thoughts that could come to mind. Visions of the factory, the shrouded city of Vale, and her fallen comrades presented themselves as her eyes closed. The wails and cries of teammates and former associates alike destroyed any chance of quiet slumber that she could possibly hope for. When she opened her eyes, these stimuli ceased, leaving her painfully awake in a cold, empty, and foreign room. The thought alone of her teammates being in trouble due to her actions tore away at her usually calm demeanor. The possibility of Yang being in pain was far too crippling to ignore. She had to know if she was alright.

Through her bleary vision, Blake was able to see the faintly lit numbers on her nightstand's clock. It was almost three in the morning and this disappointed her. She knew it was late, but she needed to know for sure that Yang was safe.

Blake took the sheets that restrained her and pulled them off of herself, becoming subject to the chilling effects of air conditioning on an already cold sweat. Standing proved to be a challenging task at first with her legs not wanting to cooperate with her intended actions. She felt faint and thusly wanted to return to her bed but she knew that doing so would only bring about the memories once more.

The dull crunching of her own footsteps on the carpeted floor was incredibly awkward to her. While she knew that the other members of her team lacked the enhanced hearing that she had been born with, she felt that even the smallest sounds could disturb their sleep. For a person so used to stealth through efficient speed, Blake found the slow movement of her room's doorknob to be painfully noisy. Fortunately, this pain was tolerable and welcomed in relation to the anguish caused by her memories.

As she stepped into the dark hallway, Blake could hear the muted sounds of restful breathing coming from the occupants of the room to her right. She closed her eyes in lieu of sighing in relief. Ruby and Weiss were safe. Yet still, she was not willing to let go of the idea that what she had experienced was more than a dream. While the two were valued teammates, they were secondary to the importance she had assigned to Yang. She who had become a prominent figure in her life in such a small amount of time was beyond the thin obstacle of wood, hopefully safe.

What if it really was too late to bother her? The pain in her voice had sounded so visceral. Ruby and Weiss were alright; why couldn't it be reasoned that she would be as well? Blake _needed_ to know. But what if her dream was only a simple nightmare? Would she be bothering Yang over something relatively inconsequential?

Blake then remembered what Yang had told her before inviting her to the fire and before wishing her goodnight.

Straining to keep the metallic whining of the door's hinges from being too noticeable, Blake slowly managed to peer into her partner's room. The layout, the furniture, and everything that wasn't her girlfriend did not matter to her. Her vision was instantly trained on a form that lay on its side and she knew it to be Yang. She could see the subtle rise and fall of her arm from time to time, so she knew that she was only asleep. The relief felt in this sight was enough to call for an audible sigh of relief.

Relieved though she was, Blake did not want to leave. Seeing that her girlfriend was safe made it easier for her to breathe and drowned out the oppressive memories. She simply stared at the immobile form for a few seconds before she hesitantly whispered, "Yang?" There was no logical reason for her to wake Yang, she just needed to hear her voice and know for certain that she was alright. "Yang?" She had been prepared to call her name a few times with the knowledge that her partner had a reputation for being a heavy sleeper.

A wonderfully alive sound came from the bed's sheets as the form became tangled in them to look towards the door frame. "Blake?" came the slurred, groggy voice of the room's occupant. She sounded tired and Blake immediately felt that she had made the wrong decision. Yang shifted so she could get a better look at the timid figure that peeked through the small gap in the door frame. "Blake, what's wrong?" She was rubbing her eyes, seemingly trying to wake herself up.

Blake was at a loss for words. It really had been a dream and she had been too dense to believe it. She wanted to say something—perhaps an apology for her intrusion—but the words could not come to her. This momentary lapse in speech did not dissuade her from attempting to say something anyways. "Nothing. Just…" She never finished the sentence, simply choosing to allow silence to settle between the two for many long seconds.

It wasn't until Yang spoke again that Blake was able to move. "Blake? Is everything alright?" The answer was no, but instead of saying this, Blake entered the room, not bothering to close the door on her way in. "Blake, are you crying?" She knew the blonde could not see in the dark, so she had to wonder how she had noticed this fact. It didn't take her too long to realize that she had been unintentionally sniffling. The moment she stopped this sound, Yang sat up in her bed, apparently awake and alert. "Blake," she began softly, "did you have a bad dream?"

"Bad" was an understatement for the horror she had felt being trapped with those sounds. Yang, having exhausted her repertoire of calming methods that would normally used on her girlfriend, had resorted to tactics proven over time to deal with a distressed Ruby. Blake could guess that this was the case due to the phrasing of the lattermost question's phrasing similar to something one would ask a child. Yet she could not argue that she wasn't a child in this moment. She couldn't reply verbally, a small nod conveying the scope of how "bad" her dream was.

Instantly, the sheets and covers on the bed were thrown out of the way so that Yang could spring to her feet and rush over to Blake. The Faunus was quickly lost in a warm embrace that she could not yet return. Yang didn't say anything, choosing to merely hold her as close as possible. Blake felt her feet moving without her conscious effort and before she knew it, she was seated on Yang's bed while being kept in a tight embrace from the side. In her tired and distraught state, she could only now begin to hear Yang's repeated assurance of, "Don't worry. I'm right here."

She hugged back tightly. If Blake had any say in the matter, Yang would always be there. She felt the need to cling to her partner so that any possibility of one leaving the other became impossible. She felt a hand running up and down her back. The room was still and she had become relaxed.

The combination of Yang's body heat, the soothing sensation of the hand on her back, and the gentle sound of the rain caused Blake's hold to weaken but not relent. However, Yang must have felt this as she stopped her motions before saying, "It's getting late. Let me help get you back to your room so you can get some rest."

Blake shook her head and tightened the hold she had on Yang. She didn't want to be alone. Not anymore. She had been alone for far too long and now she needed to know that Yang would stay safe. Yet she was too embarrassed by the alternative she wanted to suggest, causing her to try to convey the message through the head shake and tightened grip. Perceptive as ever, Yang whispered, "Alright, just give me a second." She then pulled away from the hug, giving Blake a reassuring smile before standing. Without her partner to hold onto, Blake found herself cold and at a loss for what to do. That is, she had been at a loss for words before she looked at the nearby, standing form of Yang who whispered, "Just lay down. I'll take care of everything."

Blake dutifully brought her legs onto the bed, finding this mattress to be far warmer than her own in an incredibly comfortable way. As she adjusted to this sensation, she felt the previously discarded linens placed overtop herself. Looking to the culprit, she found the mane of golden hair moving to and closing the door before returning to the opposite side of the bed.

Yang gracefully slid into her bed. As she did so, Blake was not at all ashamed for the instantaneous reaction of feebly grasping onto her. Thankfully, Yang did not remark on this action, choosing instead to continue where she left off on rubbing her back.

The inexplicable feeling of comfort that Blake found from forcing herself to be as close as possible to her girlfriend was able to dry her tears entirely. To make sure that Yang wasn't going anywhere, she had locked one of the blonde's legs in place with both of her own, she used her arms to create a tight hold around her back, and she had her ear resting against her chest. She wanted to replace the screams and wails with peaceful sounds of Yang. These sounds came in the form of a fairly rapid heartbeat that was clearly audible and would be easy to keep track of. Yang was safe.

She felt a light, quick chuckle from Yang. "We're just a couple of hot messes, aren't we?" Blake agreed wholeheartedly through a rueful smile. They both had their memories that were able to bring such indomitable warriors to their knees—that were able to shatter their façades of normalcy into millions of pieces. But when they came together, it was easier to pick up the pieces. Yang stopped rubbing her back to pull her closer. Her head rested atop Blake's as she whispered, "Good night, kitten." But Blake was already asleep with a tranquil smile on her face and tears of joy having only started to accumulate at the corners of her eyes. She was safe.

* * *

During the group's conversation by the fire, I made an attempt to limit Blake's dialogue entirely, making it so that the other three members of the team could have the narration focused on their conversation. I felt that in this way, Blake's temporary muteness could act as both relaxation and an attempt at mental and emotional recovery. Honestly, I had to keep reminding myself of this self-imposed challenge and removed quite a few of Blake's interjections that made it into the story due to my apparent obliviousness. While the fact that I couldn't allow my protagonist to speak was, at times, inopportune, the amount of fun I had writing the banter between Yang and Weiss more than made up for this.

I also took a bit of liberty in how Blake's past played out. The only two instances in canon that have expressly shown Blake involved with the White Fang were in the Black Trailer and the flashback in Episode 16 that shows Blake as more or less of a child protesting with the White Fang. I figured that in the Black Trailer, Blake was either 16 or 17 years of age as she did not look too different from how she does in the series. Between the young age of the canon flashback and the older age of the trailer, I assumed that she stayed with the White Fang for the time between those two events. The flashbacks that I included were at a young enough age to where she was still convinced that the White Fang was perennially correct and old enough to feel emotional anguish—a pain that could start her objection to the actions of the White Fang.

In these flashbacks that I included, I had to change the diction choice, tone, and narrator style to fit the scenes. I hope the transition between the rest of the story and those scenes was not too jarring.

And now for the important part of this author's note.

It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I will be unable to post a chapter every week from now. This is not an announcement of a hiatus by any means. The reason for this announcement is due to my inability to keep up with my own schedule. I knew that this would happen eventually with a chapter taking roughly 1.5 weeks to complete, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. I am sincerely sorry.

This does not mean that I am cancelling, postponing, or moving away from _Valence_—those notions are contradictory to my desires. I am simply doing away with the weekly schedule as I will be unable to create a chapter of the same quality in such a time frame. Instead, I will post chapters as they become complete and go through a three-day revision process. This means that a chapter could come out on any day of the week but at longer intervals between. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd rather not release a haphazard chapter that was rushed through to meet a weekly deadline. Instead, I will try my best to get them completed quickly, but I will never sacrifice chapter quality for word quantity.

And for those of you who may worry that my promise to continue to work is an empty one, know this: writing, for me, is more than a hobby. I have stopped watching television, playing video games, and even reading just so I can write more. I have come to enjoy writing more than most entertainment mediums in existence. _Valence_ is my top priority in terms of emotional attachment and while side projects with deadlines may interfere from time to time, I devote any and all free time I have to writing this story. I am sorry that I am unable to keep up my regular upload pace—truly, I am.

If I was to give an estimate of when the next chapter will come out, I would say two weeks as a minimum and a month as a maximum. I will do my best to give updates on my progress on my Tumblr.

Once again, I am sincerely sorry. Thank you for reading and giving your support. I feel as though I have let all of you down, but I intend to make it up over time with consistent quality in chapters. I hope I haven't let anyone down.

Stay safe and stay tuned.


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